Dietary patterns, body mass index, physical activity level and energy intake among the female elderly population in Mauritius

Abstract

Background: The aging population is becoming a global issue and Mauritius has experienced a 20.4 % growth in the last four years. There is a lack of information regarding nutrition among the Mauritian elderly. This study aimed to investigate dietary patterns and energy intake and their associated factors, to determine the relationship between body mass index (BMI), physical activity level (PAL), nutrition knowledge (NK) and energy intake among the female older adults. Methods: The study was carried out among 167 female participants aged 60 and above from both urban and rural areas in Mauritius. A questionnaire was used to determine their eating habits and food frequency, PAL, NK, anthropometric measurements and demographic data. Three 24-hour dietary recalls over three weeks were used to calculate the energy intake using the Tanzania food composition table and Nutritionist Pro software. SPSS was used to analyse the data. The main statistical tests used were ANOVA, Independent-samples t-test (ISTT), Pearson correlation and Chi-squared. Results: A significant relationship was found between age group and energy intake (p = 0.027), with individuals aged 70–89 having higher energy intake. Both BMI and PAL were significantly associated with energy intake (p ˂0.001). There was a moderate significant negative relationship between NK scores and energy intake (r = -0.474, p ˂0.001). Vegetarianism, eating difficulties and residence area did not have a statistically significant relationship with energy intake. There was a negative and significant correlation between consumption frequency of whole-grain carbohydrates and BMI and a significant positive relationship between BMI and consumption frequency of refined carbohydrates. Conclusions: The mean energy intake of the participants was much higher than the recommended daily allowance of caloric intake in India and other countries. Furthermore, the dietary pattern of the subjects was diversified including both healthy and unhealthy eating habits.