Health Supplement Food Consumption Pattern of the Elderly

The purposes of this study are to examine the usage of health supplement food among the elderly, to derive clusters from consumption pattern of health supplement food, and to analyze the differences among the clusters in demographic variables, ability to carry out activities of daily living, and health promoting behaviors. Data was collected using semi-structural questionnaires with 500 old adults in Ulsan, in September 2006.Results show that only 50% of the elderly consume health supplement food. Results of cluster analysis classify the health supplement food consumption pattern of the elderly into mania type, negative type with overuse, and positive type with appropriate use. The largest group was the negative type with overuse, which consisted of 46% of the total sample, while the smallest percentile group was the positive type with appropriate use at 17%. The results of the ANOVA indicated that the positive type with appropriate use was the youngest, had the smallest number of son and daughters, and had the least problems in carrying out activities of daily living such as going outside and purchasing goods. In terms of the ability to carry out health promoting behaviors, however, mania type and negative type with overuse tend to have more interest in healthy food, while positive group with appropriate use had little consumed of such food.Generally, the elderly in Ulsan are highly dependent upon health supplement food. The many old people included at mania type and negative type used much amount of health supplement food, while only a few old people included at positive type took health supplement food in a correct way.