Author, as appears in the article.: Company-Morales M; Casadó-Marín L; Muñoz A; Fontalba-Navas A
Department: Infermeria
URV's Author/s: Casadó Marín, Lina Cristina / Muñoz Sánchez, Antonio
Keywords: Depression Elderly people Food Learned helplessness Loneliness Malnutrition Silence
Abstract: (1) Background: Currently, numerous qualitative research studies on food and its influence on health are being conducted. In qualitative research, data are obtained by analyzing participants’ responses. However, silence during conversation has been little studied. The aim of this study was to interpret the silences in the narratives of elderly people living alone about the potential risks of not keeping a healthy diet. (2) Methods: This is a descriptive and interpretative observational study under the qualitative research paradigm following a phenomenological and ethnographic perspective. The study was developed in two phases with people over 65 years old. In the first phase, from June 2021 to January 2022, 90 interviews, 12 life history analyses, 58 food diaries and 51 free listings (cultural domain technique) were conducted. In the second phase, from March to June 2022, 3 participatory workshops and 24 pile sorts (cultural domain technique) were conducted, as well as 3 focus groups. Only data from participants over 65 years old living alone are analyzed in this paper. The ATLAS-ti (Version 22) qualitative analysis software was used for coding and data analysis. (3) Results: The results show that elderly people living alone would sometimes remain silent during the various conversations conducted within the research. This silence reflects their desire to downplay the risks to their health from not eating well due to their unwanted loneliness. The people participating in our research had chronic health problems, financial insecurity and emotional problems. (4) Conclusions: We concluded that elderly people living alone are unable to maintain a healthy diet because they downplay their risk of malnutrition. This mindset is caused by their loneliness and bolstered by a situation of learned helplessness and social injustice.
Thematic Areas: Biotecnología Ciência de alimentos Ciências agrárias i Ciências biológicas i Ciências biológicas ii Ciências biológicas iii Economia Educação física Enfermagem Engenharias ii Engenharias iv Farmacia Food science Interdisciplinar Medicina i Medicina ii Medicina iii Medicina veterinaria Nutrição Nutrition & dietetics Nutrition and dietetics Planejamento urbano e regional / demografia Psicología Química Saúde coletiva Zootecnia / recursos pesqueiros
licence for use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/
Author's mail: linacristina.casado@urv.cat
Author identifier: 0000-0002-8078-1673
Record's date: 2024-09-21
Papper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Papper original source: Nutrients. 16 (16):
APA: Company-Morales M; Casadó-Marín L; Muñoz A; Fontalba-Navas A (2024). Breaking the Silence on Food Risks for Elderly People Living Alone. Nutrients, 16(16), -. DOI: 10.3390/nu16162655
Licence document URL: https://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/
Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Journal publication year: 2024
Publication Type: Journal Publications
Repositori URV