Influencia de los factores de riesgo biopsicosociales en la ingesta dietética del adulto mayor - 2022

Abstract

The objective of this research project was to determine the influence of biopsychosocial factors on the dietary intake of older adults. The study has a non-experimental, cross-sectional, retrospective design with a population sample of 696 older adults belonging to holistic development centers in the urban and rural parishes of the Riobamba canton. To collect information, three forms were validated. They were focused on the general characteristics of the study population, healthy eating index (intake of different food groups), and the biopsychosocial factors form (diseases, level of dependency, mental problems, emotional problems, mistreatment and abuse, and level of economic and social support). The variables analyzed are qualitative so that for the descriptive analysis frequencies and percentages were reported. On the other hand, the Pearson chi square statistical test was used because the data analysis was in relation to group versus group. The results obtained show that there is a close relationship between economic and social support and the dietary intake of the elderly. There are statistically significant differences between the quality of the diet and the level of dependency (p<0.000), and there are statistically significant differences between the diet quality and the presence of diseases (p<0.000). In conclusion, biopsychosocial factors significantly influence the dietary intake of the elderly, so it is recommended to include the analysis of these external factors that can directly affect the dietary intake of the study population.