Nutrition Information Sources and Older Adults

Research conducted by: Diane L. McKay, Robert F. Houser, Jeffrey B. Blumberg, and Jeanne P. Goldberg

Case study prepared by: Robert F. Houser, Alyssa Koomas, Georgette Baghdady, and Jennifer E. Konick

Overview
Various socioeconomic factors, such as occupation, income, race, and education level, are associated with health outcomes. Prominent among them, education level has proved to be a strong predictor of diet quality, health behavior patterns, and disease risk. Studies have found that better-educated people have healthier diets than those with less education, leading some researchers to hypothesize that better-educated people may obtain nutrition information from more reliable sources than less-educated people.

This study examined that hypothesis among a sample of 176 adults aged 50 years or older. The participants completed a survey which asked whether or not they primarily relied upon each of the following sources for information about nutrition: doctors, other medical professionals, newspapers, magazines, television, radio, friends, relatives, and neighbors. Analysis involved comparing the sources by education level. Older adults are highly vulnerable to diet-related disease. Knowing which sources they rely on can enable nutrition educators and professionals to target those sources with high-quality nutrition messages, tailored to the needs and education level of the older-adult audience.

Questions to Answer
What sources of nutrition information do older adults rely on? Do these sources differ according to the educational attainment and gender of the adults? Are these sources of nutrition information related to dietary practices, such as taking supplements?

Design Issues
Given that the sample was drawn only from the New England area and that 93% were Caucasian, the results of this study should not be generalized to older adults in other regions or racial and ethnic groups. The Internet as a source of nutrition information was not included in the survey; it is likely a primary source among today's older adults.

Descriptions of Variables
Variable Description
coll4yrplus Highest level of education completed:
0 = "< 4 years of college" (i.e., secondary school, high school, vocational school, community or junior college)
1 = "≥ 4 years of college" (i.e., four-year college, graduate or professional school)

gender

1 = female, 2 = male
doctor Is your doctor a primary source of information about nutrition?
1 = yes, 2 = no
magazine Are magazines a primary source of information about nutrition?
1 = yes, 2 = no
tv Is TV a primary source of information about nutrition?
1 = yes, 2 = no
friends Are friends a primary source of information about nutrition?
1 = yes, 2 = no
supps Are you taking any dietary supplements?
1 = yes, 2 = no


References

McKay, D. L., Houser, R. F., Blumberg, J. B., Goldberg, J. P. (2006). Nutrition information sources vary with education level in a population of older adults. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 106, 1108-1111.

 


Links
Exercises
Please read the original publication first, and then perform the exercises using the data set. For all analyses, statistical significance is based on p<0.05.
  1. Examine the relationships between education level (coll4yrplus) and different primary sources of nutrition information utilizing the Pearson Chi Square test. Specifically:
    1. Is there a statistically significant relationship between education level and reporting their doctor as a primary source of nutrition information?
    2. Is there a statistically significant relationship between education level and reporting magazines as a primary source of nutrition information?
    3. Is there a statistically significant relationship between education level and reporting television as a primary source of nutrition information?
    4. Is there a statistically significant relationship between education level and reporting friends as a primary source of nutrition information?
    5. In which education level were older adults more likely to report each source? Report your findings with the percentages and p values. Check your answers with the results in Table 1 of the article.
  2. Using Excel, construct a horizontal bar chart comparing the number of older adults in each education level (coll4yrplus) who relied on each of the four primary sources of nutrition information examined in Exercise #1.
  3. Compare sources of nutrition information by gender. Specifically, is there a statistically significant relationship between gender and each of the four primary sources of nutrition information examined in Exercise #1?
  4. Are older males more highly educated than older females? Examine the relationship between gender and education level (coll4yrplus). What do you find?
  5. Explore the use of dietary supplements and report your findings. Specifically:
    1. Are any of the primary sources of nutrition information significantly related to supplement use (supps)?
    2. Are the demographic variables gender and education level (coll4yrplus) significantly related to supplement use (supps)?
  6. What sources do you rely on for nutrition information? Comment on the quality of nutrition information that your sources provide.