Open Access, Peer-reviewed
eISSN 2951-3146
    Korean J Community Nutr. 2013 Jun;18(3):223-232. Korean.
    Published online Jun 30, 2013.
    https://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2013.18.3.223
    Copyright © 2013 The Korean Society of Community Nutrition
    Original Article

    Association between Preferences of Salty Food and Acuity and Preferences of Taste of the Elderly People Living in Rural Area

    Mee Sook Lee
      • Department of Food and Nutrition, Hannam University, Daejeon, Korea.
    • Corresponding author: Mee Sook Lee, Department of Food and Nutrition, Hannam University, #461-6 Jeonmin-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-811, Korea. Tel: (042) 629-8794, Fax: (042) 629-8789, Email: meesook@hnu.kr
    Received March 28, 2013; Revised May 14, 2013; Accepted May 14, 2013.

    This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

    Abstract

    The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of salt (NaCl) recognition threshold and pleasant salt concentrations of Korean rural elderly subjects on preference of salty food as well as food group consumption patterns. The subjects were 213 elderly people (male 71 and female 142) over 65 and under 90 yr of age from Sunchang area. The higher values were found with male subjects in the areas of basic taste recognition threshold and pleasant concentration level of salt. The taste sensitivity scores of male subjects did not decrease with the increasing age, but female subjects exhibited a significant decrease with the age. The major determinant factor of salt preference of the elderly subjects in this study appeared to be personal pleasant concentration of salt rather than salt recognition threshold level and this trend was more evident in males than in females. The subject group of lower salt pleasant concentration i.e. consuming less salt showed the higher number of fruit and fruit juice intakes per week, and higher MNA (define this) scores were implying that they display more desirable nutritional status. Therefore, nutritional education focused on not only a variety of food consumption but also lowering pleasant salt concentration levels is advised to improve the quality of nutrition in the elderly.

    Keywords
    elderly; recognition threshold; pleasant salt concentration; salty food taste

    Tables

    Table 1
    General characteristics of the subjects

    Table 2
    Concentrations of recognition threshold of 4 basic taste qualities and pleasant salty taste by gender

    Table 3
    Concentration of recognition thresholds of 4 basic taste qualities and pleasant salty taste by age groups

    Table 4
    Correlation coefficient among recognition threshold of tastes and pleasant salty taste adjusted by age and gender

    Table 5
    Preferences of taste of food by gender

    Table 6
    Preferences of salty food by recognition threshold of salty taste group, pleasant salty taste group and gender

    Table 7
    Education and food behaviors of subjects by recognition threshold of salty taste group and pleasant salty taste group

    Notes

    This work was supported by the 2012 Hannam University Research Fund.

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    MeSH Terms
    Aged
    Female
    Fruit
    Humans
    Male
    Nutritional Status
    Metrics
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