VARIATION IN NUTRIENT INTAKE WITH DENTAL STATUS, AGE AND ODOR PERCEPTION

Objectives: Since the proportion of elderly people with an insufficien t intake of nutrients is high and many of the elderly have poor odour perception or poor dental state, in this study, the relation between a ge, odour perception, dental state and nutrient intake is explored. De sign: Single centre cross sectional study. Setting: Independently livi ng elderly were tested at their homes in 4 locations in Belgium, rangi ng in ages 60-90 y. Subjects: 200 elderly participated in a 7 d food r ecord study, resulting in 119 complete records. Interventions: Food qu antities were converted to nutrient intake levels. For all people, odo ur detection threshold was determined of isoamylacetate and dental sta tus was noted. Path analysis was used and the separate effects of age, dental state, odour perception and gender were tested on macronutrien t intake and micronutrient intake respectively. Main outcome measures: For all nutrients, no significant correlation was observed between nu trient intake and odour perception, except for energy, water, Fe and n iacin (P < 0.05). A significant separate effect of odour perception wa s observed for water intake (CR = 2.09). Significant separate effects of dental state were observed for animal protein (CR = 2.29), niacine (CR = 2.04) and mono-unsaturated fats (CR = 2.32). Conclusions: Althou gh odour perception and dental state can not fully explain variability in nutrient intake, our results show that people with poor odour perc eption have lower nutrient intake levels than people with good odour p erception. Dental state may not be a direct cause of poor nutrition bu t a contributing factor in those elderly who have other risk factors. Sponsorship: This study was supported by the FLAIR and AIR programs of the Commission of the European Communities.