The relationships between food attitudes and sociodemographic determinants among students of the Third Age University in northern Poland

Background. A thorough understanding of nutritional needs, food attitudes, and preferences are necessary for aging societies. So far the detailed studies on food attitudes and their determinants among elderly people were relatively scarce. Objective. This research was aimed at the determination of relationships between food attitudes and some sociodemographic features among elderly people, students of the Third Age University in Poland. Material and methods. The study was conducted among 607 students of the Third Age University based on the authors` questionnaire. The survey was anonymous. The attitudes towards health benefits of foods, novel foods, light and organic foods, food as a reward and pleasure, restriction of food intake, and the packaging and composition of food were investigated. Results. The relationships between attitudes and gender, age, education level, professional activity, BMI index, and economic status were differentiated. The positive attitudes over 50% were noticed only for the health benefits of foods and the packaging and composition of the food. For the other attitudes, the neutral attitudes were dominant. The three significant relations between attitudes and sociodemographic determinants were notices only for gender, two such relations were found for professional activity, the economic status and BMI index, and relations between age or education level – only for a single attitude. Conclusions. The obtained results may be explained as a complex effect of specifics of this group and the overall tendency for conservative attitudes observed among elderly people. The food attitudes are significantly related to gender and other determinants become much less important for the surveyed group of the participants of the Third Age University