Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Harokopio University, Eleftheriou Venizelou 70, 17676 Athens, Greece.
Department of Social Medicine, Psychiatry and Neurology, 1st Department of Neurology, Aeginition University Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Public Health Nutr. 2020 Feb;23(3):439-445. doi: 10.1017/S1368980019002350. Epub 2019 Aug 23.
The present study aimed to explore the associations between social life and adherence to a healthy dietary pattern, the Mediterranean diet (MD), in a population-representative cohort of older people.
Cross-sectional study. Adherence to the MD was evaluated by an a priori score; tertiles of the score, indicating low, medium and high adherence, were used in the analyses. Social life was assessed by a questionnaire evaluating participation in leisure-time activities and the number of social contacts; primary occupation was also recorded and job characteristics were further explored.
Community-dwelling older adults.
Adults from the Hellenic Longitudinal Investigation of Aging and Diet (HELIAD) study (n 1933; age range 65-99 years).
Each unit increase in the number of social contacts/month and in the frequency score of intellectual, social and physical activities was associated with a 1·6, 6·8, 4·8 and 13·7 % increase in the likelihood of a participant being in the high MD adherence group, respectively. The analysis by age group revealed that younger elderly participants had a 1·4, 8·4 and 11·3 % higher likelihood to be in the high adherence group for each unit increase in the number of social contacts/month and in the frequency score of engagement in intellectual and physical activities, respectively. Similar associations were found for older elderly participants with high compared with low MD adherence, except for the intellectual activities.
The present results suggest that high MD adherence is associated with good social life, suggesting a clustering of health-promoting lifestyle factors in older adults.
本研究旨在探讨社交生活与健康饮食模式（地中海饮食，MD）依从性之间的关联，该研究人群为具有代表性的老年人群。
横断面研究。采用预先设定的评分来评估 MD 的依从性；将评分的三分位数，即低、中、高依从性，用于分析。社交生活通过评估参与休闲活动和社会联系数量的问卷进行评估；还记录了主要职业，并进一步探讨了工作特征。
居住在社区的老年人。
来自希腊老龄化和饮食纵向研究（HELIAD）的成年人（n=1933；年龄范围 65-99 岁）。
每月社会联系数量和智力、社会和身体活动频率评分每增加一个单位，参与者处于 MD 高依从性组的可能性分别增加 1.6%、6.8%、4.8%和 13.7%。按年龄组分析显示，年轻的老年参与者每月社会联系数量和智力、身体活动参与频率评分每增加一个单位，处于 MD 高依从性组的可能性分别增加 1.4%、8.4%和 11.3%。对于 MD 高依从性的老年参与者，也存在类似的关联，除了智力活动外。
本研究结果表明，MD 高依从性与良好的社交生活相关，提示在老年人中存在健康促进生活方式因素的聚集。
