ASSESSING DIETS OF ELDERLY PEOPLE - PROBLEMS AND APPROACHES

This paper deals with the question of whether dietary assessment metho ds developed and validated for younger adults can be used in surveys f or elderly people. From the literature it is clear that a decline in s hort-term memory with age makes the 24-h recall method particularly un reliable. Better results have been obtained with other methods, especi ally when a combination of methods is used and equipment is adapted fo r use by older people. However, validity of these methods when applied in older people is dependent on the group of elderly. people under st udy and the type of information required for the purpose of the study. As an example, the validity of the adapted dietary-history method use d in the Survey in Europe on Nutrition and the Elderly a Concerted Act ion (SENECA) is discussed. This method showed good agreement with the weighed record and with other evaluation criteria.