Study will identify the eating pattern and socio-sanitary profile of older people throughout the country

Communications VID, UChile.- According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people aged 80 and over is projected to triple over a 30-year period, reaching 426 million, a phenomenon that has numerous implications. To address this problem at the national level, the Chilean State University Consortium (CUECH) created the Interuniversity Center for Healthy Aging (CIES)an initiative promoted by 16 higher education institutions in the country within the framework of the Strengthening Plan for state universities.

Within the work that CIES has been developing since 2021, one of the thematic lines is Food and Nutrition in the Elderly, an area in which the center has considered to investigate the eating pattern and the social and health profile of older people who live in different territories throughout the country and how different factors affect the aging process. In this context, the CIES Research Projects contest awarded funding to the initiative “Characterization of the eating pattern and socio-health profile of Chilean older people: North, Center-South and South-Austral Macrozones”, which will establish an interuniversity work, inter-regional and transdisciplinary focused on healthy aging.

The director of the research project, Barbara Angelan academic from the Public Nutrition Unit of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA) of the University of Chile, explained that the general objective of this study is determine and characterize the socio-sanitary profile and the eating pattern of Chilean older people in relation to their territorial origin. For this, it is intended to study three subgroups of self-reliant elderly people who live in the selected macro-areas.

The proposal arises from the notion that the eating pattern of each family and each individual is influenced by sociocultural, emotional, economic factors (the cost and affordability of food), as well as the food environmentbeing the older population the most vulnerable to nutritional deficiencies due to physiological, physical, psychological and social changes and, in large part, to a decrease in appetite and the amount of food eaten.

The team will collect information that will include data on the type and amount of food; socio-sanitary aspects, such as nutritional status, oral health, pharmacological treatments, among others; also including psycho-emotional factors, such as geographic, social, and mental health isolation, which may affect the pattern of food intake. Professor Angel points out that taking these data into account, they can carry out a two-way work with organizations and decision makers on public policies. In addition, she highlighted the transdisciplinary task, which allows generating a co-construction of knowledge, including not only different disciplines, but also the community, in this case, the elderly, who take a more leading role.

“Delivering these evidence-based inputs, we can affect how they relate to the right to a dignified old age, the right to healthy eating and food security for the elderly in Chile. This is to be able to propose programs aimed at the elderly that improve or complement those that already exist, facing this challenge of population aging with the required association between the decisions to be made according to the territoriality of the inhabitants, which in Chile is very heterogeneous” maintains the academic.

For her part, the nutritionist and academic from the University of Magallanes and alternate director of the project, paola aravena, indicated that interdisciplinary work allows the integration of diverse knowledge and practices, in addition to contributing from different perspectives in the discussion about the common factors that affect the population. At par, the decentralized work of the project will make it possible to identify geographical differences that can make a big difference.

“Achieving the integrality of the different areas of health and the social area, makes all these activities focus on older adults so that they can actually have better care. This will guarantee that they can have a certain degree of independence, autonomy, and that they can have access and form part of the fundamental rights that permanent people must have over time”points out the academic.

Interuniversity Center for Healthy Aging

With the aim of addressing and studying the complex process of aging from an inter and transdisciplinary perspective, the CIES aims to generate basic and applied knowledge that is a contribution to improve the quality of life of the elderly. In this line, it seeks to influence the development of public policies based on evidence and promote healthy aging, training and informing about prevention and rehabilitation in the different stages of the life course. All this, through the articulation of the State Universities.

In order to carry out decentralized work and contribute in an integral way to the well-being of the elderly, the CIES was made up of 66 academics from different universities from the north to the extreme south of the country. The center also collaborates with public institutions, such as the Ministry of Health (MINSAL), and private institutions, both nationally and internationally, in addition to being made up of three other external institutions: National Institute of Geriatrics (INGER), Chile, Service National Institute for the Elderly (SENAMA), and National Institute of Geriatrics (INGER), Mexico.

Ivan Palomoa researcher at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Talca and director of CIES, emphasizes that the center poses a collaboration platform between specialists from various universities to decentralize the development of research at the national level. In addition, he highlighted the participation from the different professions, academic degrees and the gender parity of the center.

“This network center has the task of positively impacting research, both basic and applied, and also contributing to the formation of advanced human capital (…). Secondly, A very relevant task for the center is to generate documents associated with public policies that aim to improve the quality of life of older adults”Palomo pointed out, also highlighting the work of linking with the environment and the objective of each house of studies to leave a mark in their respective localities.