Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users, please click the view more button below to purchase a copy of this dissertation from Proquest.
(Some titles may also be available free of charge in our Open Access Dissertation Collection, so please check there first.)
Relationship of acculturation, health and socioeconomic factors to dietary status of Puerto Rican elderly
Abstract
Data about dietary status and the relationship between acculturation, socioeconomic and health factors of Puerto Rican (PR) elderly in the United States is sparse. The purpose of this research was to examine the Dietary Quality (DQ) of the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES) PR elderly and its relationship to acculturation, health and socioeconomic factors. In addition, exploratory analyses were conducted in order to look at cultural foods of the PR elderly, which were used to construct a cultural food scale for measuring acculturation levels. The HHANES PR sample of this study consisted of 281 subjects (55-74 years of age). Analysis of health and socioeconomic variables was done using descriptive statistics. Acculturation was measured with the HHANES language-based acculturation scale. DQ was estimated using both, Mean Adequacy Ratios (MAR) and Food Group Scores. Multiple regressions, ANOVA and t-tests were applied to look at associations between DQ and acculturation, health and socioeconomic factors. To construct the cultural food scale, cultural foods were chosen based on the most frequently consumed foods by the less acculturated PR elderly. The results indicated that PR elderly had adequate intakes of protein, vitamin B-12, vitamin C, and phosphorus. The group had low intakes of energy, zinc, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin E and vitamin B-6, with significantly lower intakes in females than in males. Although the higher proportion of subjects were classified as having high DQ based on MARs, important proportions had low or moderate DQ. When DQ was measured in terms of the Food Group Score, it was noted the highest proportion of the group had moderate DQ, but, again, with important proportions in the low DQ category. Based both on the HHANES acculturation scale and the newly generated cultural food scale, it was found that PR elderly were predominantly monocultural. The cultural food score was able to measure acculturation of PR elderly. Acculturation did play an important role in DQ of PR elderly. Other socioeconomic and health factors such as sex, education, marital status, poverty level, and biting or chewing conditions, were also important in determining DQ.
Subject Area
Nutrition|Gerontology
Recommended Citation
Carrasco de Bermudez, Odilia Isabel, "Relationship of acculturation, health and socioeconomic factors to dietary status of Puerto Rican elderly" (1994). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9434454.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9434454