Impact of culinary dependence on dietary patterns in the elderly population

International audienceContext. Culinary dependence describes situations in which elderly people are unable to obtain and/or prepare food for their meals and delegate all or part of these tasks to others. However, delegation of food activity affects the relationship between a person and his diet, which may in turn impact the nutritional risk. Method. A food frequency questionnaire was completed by four categories of elderly people: i. living independently at home (n=182); ii. living at home with help for food activities (shopping, cooking) (n=91); iii. living at home with meal delivery (n=108); iv. living in nursing home (n=120). Results. We observed an increase in ham and starches and a decrease of raw vegetable for elderly people who receive support by a home caregiver, which may reveal a propensity toward convenient foods. An increase of meat, delicatessen and sweet desserts consumption was observed in nursing home compared to home-living situation. Finally, we observed a decrease in raw fruit alongside an increase of cooked fruit consumption when the level of dependence increases (66% of institutionalized people consume raw fruit less than once a day, mainly because of chewing difficulty; they were only 18% among the autonomous elderlies).Conclusion. These results highlight the importance of improving food offer for the support of dependent elderly persons (e.g. improving nutritional training of caregiver, improving raw fruit supply in catering service), to further tackle malnutrition in this population