Oral Presentation Australian & New Zealand Obesity Society 2016 Annual Scientific Meeting

Seniors’ food shopping priorities (#67)

Simone Pettigrew 1 , Caitlin Worrall 1 , Nicole Biagioni 1 , Zenobia Talati 1 , Michelle Jongenelis 1
  1. Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

Both obesity and malnutrition are serious health issues associated with older age, highlighting the importance of managing diet and nutrition to achieve healthy ageing. This study investigated seniors’ priorities when food shopping to provide insight into health promotion strategies that could assist in optimising nutrition in later life. A novel exploratory approach was adopted to access and engage with older Australians. Various recruitment strategies (e.g., community newspaper and radio advertisements and flyers) were used to attract an initial cohort of seniors (n=8) who were subsequently trained in interviewing techniques and asked to invite up to 10 friends and acquaintances also aged 60+ years to participate in the study. These eight seniors then interviewed their peers, resulting in a final sample of 75 seniors. The interview guide covered a range of nutrition-related issues, including food shopping preferences and behaviours. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using NVivo11. The study produced a comprehensive typology of factors that influence seniors’ food shopping behaviours, including those relating to store, product category, and brand decisions. Overall, the interviewees expressed satisfaction with current food retailing options and felt there was adequate range and quality available in most food product categories. Reflecting earlier research, price was of paramount concern. Nutrition-related issues nominated as problematic by the interviewees included packaged portion sizes and country of origin, the latter being perceived as a serious nutrition issue. There was relatively little concern about specific micro or macro nutrients, with most considering their diets to be already healthy due to being based on a lifetime of nutrition knowledge. The findings indicate that the health value of foods could be made more salient to older shoppers to encourage them to reconsider their choices in the context of current dietary guidelines and reduce high levels of concern about country of origin.