Self-efficacy and its relationship with factors affecting nutritional status in elderly

This study aimed to examine the relationship between self-efficacy and factors that affecting the nutritional status of elderly people.

In this cross-sectional study, a random sample of 250 elderly adults attended to health centers in Mashhad, Iran in 2018 were studied. The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) questionnaire was used to evaluate the nutritional status of the elderly. Moreover, a standard 10-item self-efficacy questionnaire was used to evaluate the self-efficacy. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS25 and the significance level was set at less than 0.05.

32.4% (n=81) of the participants were men and 67.6% (n=169) were women with age range from 60 to 89 years. It was identified that 20.4% of the elderly (n =51) were at risk of malnutrition and 79.6% (n =151) had a favorable nutritional status. The results indicated that people with high self-efficacy had a better nutritional status. Additionally, the evidence suggested a significant relationship between self-efficacy and age, gender, level of education and marital status of the elderly (P value<0.001).

The results indicated that the elderly with a favorable nutritional status had higher self-efficacy than the elderly in the risk of malnutrition.