Abstract

This study was conducted to study the correlating factors between personal nutritional awareness and consumption behavior of the elderly in Samutprakarn Province, Thailand.  Members of the elderly society of Samutprakarn Province were interviewed with a rating scale questionnaire to know about their personal data, nutritional awareness and the factors that influence their food consumption behaviors. 400 elderlies participated in the study. Their ages range is between 60 and 84 years old (±0.79); with average age of 67.20 years. There were 156 males (38.90%) and 244 females (61.1%). Factors that influence nutritional awareness showed reliability statistic between 0.25 and 0.46 and food consumption behavior was 0.34. Moreover, result shows emotional awareness (r=0.43, p-value < 0.05), accurate self-assessment (r=0.13, p-value < 0.05), and self-confidence (r=0.16, p-value < 0.05) were positively and significantly correlated with food consumption behaviors. It can be concluded that the 3 personal awareness factors were positively correlated with food consumption behaviors. With a high rating, personal awareness can impact proper food consumption behaviors.

Key word: Elderly, food consumption behavior, nutritional awareness, personal factor.