Elsevier

Appetite

Volume 30, Issue 1, February 1998, Pages 39-51
Appetite

Regular Article
Gender and Living Alone as Determinants of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption among the Elderly Living at Home in Urban Nottingham,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1006/appe.1997.0110Get rights and content

Abstract

Consumption of fruits and vegetables by a sample of 369 elderly people living in Nottingham, England, was analysed in relation to whether or not they were eating five portions a day. Living status was only of significance to men who, if single, consumed 2·66 portions of fruits and vegetables per day compared with an overall mean of 4·1. The salient question is therefore not “Are you living alone?” but “s there a woman in the household?”. Those respondents who were older and less educated ate less vegetables and those respondents who had a lower income or social grade ate less fruit. Men were less likely to be able to cook a range of meals, to have had a job that involved cooking or to watch cookery programmes on television. Single men were more likely than single women to say that eating food that was easy to cook and prepare was an important influence on their food choice. Single women on the other hand were more influenced by body image. Finding foods that were the right portion size and easy to open, prepare and cook was more important to single men than married men, as was the amount of money left after paying the bills.

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    This analysis was carried out using data collected for the project “Consumption, Diet and Aging: the Construction of Food Choice in Later Life”, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) as part of its Research Programme “The Nation's Diet: the Social Science of Food Choice”. Thanks are also due to: the Nottinghamshire Family Health Services Authority; the Local Medical Committee in Nottingham and local general practitioners and their staff for their assistance with the selection of respondents; and to Sally Herne for the design of the questionnaire.

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    Address correspondence to: Dr Angela Donkin, Public Health Nutrition Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, U.K.

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