(Purpose) This study aims to quantitatively analyze the impact of dietary nutrition education and personalized counseling on dementia-preventive food intake, dietary improvement, and changes in nutritional indices among the elderly. Based on the findings from field analysis, the ultimate goal is to provide foundational data for the development of customized nutrition education programs to improve the dietary habits of older adults, assess long-term effects, and suggest policy directions.
(Design/methodology/approach) The primary educational content of this study focused on dietary strategies for dementia prevention, structured into three sessions. A pre- and post-intervention evaluation was conducted using elderly nutritional indices, dementia-preventive food awareness, Cognitive Function Assessment, and Subjective Global Assessment (SGA). The final analysis was completed based on expert consultations and reviews of counseling logs and survey data.
(Findings) The results indicate a strong positive correlation between pre-intervention nutritional indices and dementia-preventive food awareness. Additionally, a significant positive correlation was found between post-intervention nutritional indices and balance scores. The pre-analysis and post-analysis of dementia-preventive food intake and elderly nutritional indices revealed significant improvements in total nutritional index scores, balance domains within the index, dementia-preventive food awareness, and cognitive function test scores (p<0.05). Specifically, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) showed notable improvements post-intervention. The final results demonstrated an increase in elderly nutritional indices and dementia-preventive food awareness, with the latter improving by 39.53%. Food consumption patterns for dementia prevention also improved across all measured areas.
(Research implications or Originality) Based on current policy directions and research findings, future policy recommendations include: (1) improving elderly nutritional status and promoting dietary changes to enhance health indicators; (2) expanding integrated approaches to maximize dementia prevention effects and alleviate social caregiving burdens; (3) implementing sustainable elderly health management systems within the framework of community-based integrated care; and (4) expanding the application of the Elderly Nutrition Index (NQ-E) through training and promotion in local health centers and welfare facilities. Additionally, To maximize the impact of nutritional education, customized programs should be developed based on nutritional index evaluations and integrated with various health and nutrition education initiatives.