Association between Risk Factors for Health and Taste Perceptions of Middle-aged and Elderly People Living in Rural Areas

농촌지역 중.노년의 맛 감지능과 건강위험인자와의 관계

  • Lee, Mee-Sook (Department of Food and Nutrition, Hannam University) ;
  • Oh, Se-In (Department of Food and Nutrition, Seoil University) ;
  • Kwak, Chung-Shil (Institute on Aging, Seoul National University)
  • 이미숙 (한남대학교 식품영양학과) ;
  • 오세인 (서일대학 식품영양과) ;
  • 곽충실 (서울대학교 노화고령사회연구소)
  • Received : 2010.12.23
  • Accepted : 2011.02.16
  • Published : 2011.02.28

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between taste perceptions and risk factors for health of Korean elderly living in rural areas. Recognition thresholds for four basic tastes, drug consumption, BMI, fasting blood glucose, serum total cholesterol, serum triglyceride, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure were assessed in 176 males and 312 females aged between 50 and 88 years. For the recognition threshold of the four basic tastes, alcohol drinking did not influence their sensitivities, but the alcohol drinking group preferred a higher pleasant concentration of NaCl than did the non-alcohol drinking group. However, smoking significantly decreased sensitivities of the four basic tastes. For the pleasant concentration of NaCl, the smoking group tended to prefer a higher concentration than the non-smoking group. Drug consumption, fasting blood glucose, serum total cholesterol, and serum triglycerides did not have a significant correlation to the sensitivity of the four basic tastes and preference of salty solution. Systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure may have been positively correlated with the pleasant concentration of NaCl but did not correlate with the recognition thresholds of NaCl and sucrose. Further, systolic blood pressure was negatively correlated with the recognition thresholds of caffeine, whereas diastolic blood pressure was negatively correlated with the recognition thresholds of caffeine and citric acid. The finding that the risk factors for health correlated with taste perception has diagnostic and practical implications for health promotion for the elderly.

Keywords

References

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