title: Age, marital status and changes in dietary habits in later life: a 21-year follow-up among Finnish women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine 21-year longitudinal changes in dietary habits and their associations with age and marital status among women aged 50-60 years at baseline.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective, longitudinal study of a cohort in the FINMONICA population-based risk factor survey with clinical assessments in 1982, 1992 and 2003. Dietary habits were assessed via self-reported consumption of foods typically contributing to SFA, cholesterol and sugar intakes in the Finnish diet. A dietary risk score based upon five items was used.
  
  
  METHODS
  Kuopio region, Finland.
  
  
  METHODS
  Complete data from all three assessments for 103 women of the original cohort of 299 were included for two age groups: 50-54 and 55-60 years at baseline.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Dietary habits improved between 1982 and 1992 and showed continued but less pronounced improvement between 1992 and 2003: within the younger age group, 78 % of the women reduced the number of dietary risk points from the 1982 to 2003 scores, whereas 3 % increased them and 19 % reported no change. In the older age group these percentages were 61 %, 23 % and 16 %, respectively. Women who remained married showed a steadier decline in dietary risk points than single women or women who were widows at the beginning of the follow-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Older women make positive changes to their dietary habits but the consistency of these changes may be affected by the ageing process, marital status and changes in the latter.
authors.affiliation: School of Applied Educational Sciences and Teacher Education and Department of Clinical Nutrition and Public Health, University of Eastern Finland, Savonlinna, Finland.
authors.forename: Irja
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Haapala
authors.forename: Ritva
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Prättälä
authors.forename: Kristiina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Patja
authors.forename: Reija
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Männikkö
authors.forename: Maija
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hassinen
authors.forename: Pirjo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Komulainen
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rauramaa
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D004032:Diet; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D017533:Marital Status / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires