Vijewardane Samantha Chandrika, Balasuriya Aindralal, Johnstone Alexandra M, Myint Phyo Kyaw
Ageing Clinical & Experimental Research Team, Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB25 2ZD, UK.
Department of Public Health and Family Medicine, General Sir John Kotelawala Defense University, Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia 10 390, Sri Lanka.
Geriatrics (Basel). 2023 May 17;8(3):56. doi: 10.3390/geriatrics8030056.
Low-cost educational interventions to improve dietary pattern is a pragmatic solution to prevent undernutrition in low- and middle-income countries. A prospective nutritional education intervention was conducted among older adults aged 60 years or above with undernutrition with 60 people in each intervention and control group. The objective was to develop and evaluate the efficacy of a community-based nutrition education intervention to improve the dietary pattern of older adults with undernutrition in Sri Lanka. The intervention consisted of two modules to improve the diversity, the variety of diet, and the serving sizes of food consumed. The primary outcome was the improvement of the Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) and the secondary outcomes were the Food Variety Score and Dietary Serving Score, which was assessed using the 24 h dietary recall. The mean difference in scores between the two groups was compared using the independent sample -test at baseline, two weeks and three months post-intervention. Baseline characteristics were comparable. After two weeks, only the difference in DDS between the two groups was statistically significant ( = 0.002). However, this was not sustained at three months ( = 0.08). This study concludes that nutrition education interventions have the potential for short-term improvement in dietary patterns in older adults in a Sri Lanka setting.
低成本的教育干预措施以改善饮食模式是预防低收入和中等收入国家营养不良的切实可行的解决方案。对60岁及以上的营养不良老年人进行了一项前瞻性营养教育干预，干预组和对照组各有60人。目的是开发并评估一项基于社区的营养教育干预措施对改善斯里兰卡营养不良老年人饮食模式的效果。该干预包括两个模块，以改善饮食的多样性、种类和摄入量。主要结果是饮食多样性评分（DDS）的改善，次要结果是食物种类评分和饮食摄入量评分，通过24小时饮食回顾进行评估。在基线、干预后两周和三个月时，使用独立样本t检验比较两组评分的平均差异。基线特征具有可比性。两周后，两组之间仅DDS差异具有统计学意义（P = 0.002）。然而，三个月时这一差异未持续存在（P = 0.08）。本研究得出结论，在斯里兰卡环境中，营养教育干预措施有可能在短期内改善老年人的饮食模式。
