TY - JOUR
T1 - Barriers to eating are associated with poor physical function in older women
AU - Neuhouser, Marian L.
AU - Hunt, Rebecca P.
AU - Van Horn, Linda
AU - Shikany, James M.
AU - Stefanick, Marcia L.
AU - Johnson, Karen C.
AU - Brunner, Robert
AU - Cannell, Brad
AU - Hatsu, Irene E.
AU - Tinker, Lesley F.
N1 - Funding Information:
The WHI program is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute , National Institutes of Health , U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through contracts HHSN268201600018C , HHSN268201600001C , HHSN268201600002C , HHSN268201600003C , and HHSN268201600004C .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - Older adults have physical and social barriers to eating but whether this affects functional status is unknown. We examined associations between eating barriers and physical function in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI). In 2012–14, a subset of alive and participating women (n = 5910) completed an in-home examination including the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) (grip strength, balance, timed walking speed, chair stand). WHI participants complete annual mailed questionnaires; the 2013–14 questionnaire included items on eating alone, eating < two meals/day, dentition problems affecting eating, physical difficulties with cooking/shopping and monetary resources for food. Linear regression tested associations of these eating barriers with SPPB, adjusting for BMI, age, race/ethnicity, and medical multimorbidities. Over half (56.8%) of participants were ≥ 75 years, 98.8% had a BMI ≥ 25.0 kg/m2 and 66% had multimorbidities. Eating barriers, excluding eating alone, were associated with significantly lower total (all p <.001) and component-specific, multivariate-adjusted SPPB scores (all p <.05). Compared to no barriers, eating < two meals/day (7.83 vs. 8.38, p <.0002), dentition problems (7.69 vs. 8.38, p <.0001), inability to shop/prepare meals (7.74 vs. 8.38, p <.0001) and insufficient resources (7.84 vs. 8.37 p <.001) were significantly associated with multivariate-adjusted mean SPPB score < 8. Models additionally adjusting for Healthy Eating Index-2010 had little influence on scores. As barriers increased, scores declined further for grip strength (16.10 kg for 4–5 barriers, p =.001), timed walk (0.58 m/s for 4–5 barriers, p =.001) and total SPPB (7.27 for 4–5 barriers, p <.0001). In conclusion, in this WHI subset, eating barriers were associated with poor SPPB scores.
AB - Older adults have physical and social barriers to eating but whether this affects functional status is unknown. We examined associations between eating barriers and physical function in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI). In 2012–14, a subset of alive and participating women (n = 5910) completed an in-home examination including the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) (grip strength, balance, timed walking speed, chair stand). WHI participants complete annual mailed questionnaires; the 2013–14 questionnaire included items on eating alone, eating < two meals/day, dentition problems affecting eating, physical difficulties with cooking/shopping and monetary resources for food. Linear regression tested associations of these eating barriers with SPPB, adjusting for BMI, age, race/ethnicity, and medical multimorbidities. Over half (56.8%) of participants were ≥ 75 years, 98.8% had a BMI ≥ 25.0 kg/m2 and 66% had multimorbidities. Eating barriers, excluding eating alone, were associated with significantly lower total (all p <.001) and component-specific, multivariate-adjusted SPPB scores (all p <.05). Compared to no barriers, eating < two meals/day (7.83 vs. 8.38, p <.0002), dentition problems (7.69 vs. 8.38, p <.0001), inability to shop/prepare meals (7.74 vs. 8.38, p <.0001) and insufficient resources (7.84 vs. 8.37 p <.001) were significantly associated with multivariate-adjusted mean SPPB score < 8. Models additionally adjusting for Healthy Eating Index-2010 had little influence on scores. As barriers increased, scores declined further for grip strength (16.10 kg for 4–5 barriers, p =.001), timed walk (0.58 m/s for 4–5 barriers, p =.001) and total SPPB (7.27 for 4–5 barriers, p <.0001). In conclusion, in this WHI subset, eating barriers were associated with poor SPPB scores.
KW - Eating
KW - Obesity
KW - Older adults
KW - Physical function
KW - Postmenopausal
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089513382&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85089513382&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ypmed.2020.106234
DO - 10.1016/j.ypmed.2020.106234
M3 - Article
C2 - 32795644
AN - SCOPUS:85089513382
VL - 139
JO - Preventive Medicine
JF - Preventive Medicine
SN - 0091-7435
M1 - 106234
ER -
