A Comparison of Food Selection Behaviors with Ages Range of the Elderly in Thailand

Abstract

As individuals age, elderly people experience physical deterioration. Consequently, preparing adequate support for the elderly population poses a challenge, particularly in understanding their food consumption behavior and age patterns. Therefore, exploring the needs of Thai elderly individuals in terms of food containers is regarded as an initial step towards developing appropriate solutions. The elderly population possesses significant influence and substantial purchasing power. As a result, there exists an opportunity to develop a Niche Market that caters to their specific needs, which holds the potential to become a sizable market in the future. The question for this research is: What types of food consumption behaviors do Thai elderly people have? The aims for this research is to study about: 1) Personal characteristics and savory food consumption behavior of Thai elderly. 2) Comparison of savory food consumption behavior with age range of Thai elderly. The research hypothesis is that various characteristics among Thai elderly individuals influence their food consumption behavior. This is a quantitative research, the informants were elderly aged between 60-79 years living in Bangkok. The top 3 districts with the highest number of elderly people were, Lat Krabang, Saphan Sung and Min Buri. The informants, comprising a sample size of 120 individuals, participated on a voluntary basis. Among the participants, there were 56 males and 64 females. They were categorized into 2 age groups: 60-69 years, consisting of 60 individuals, and 70-79 years, also comprising 60 individuals. In all 3 districts, there are happiness centers catering to individuals of all age groups. The researchers were granted permission to conduct field studies in order to collect data. A questionnaire was utilized as the data collection instrument. The collected data was analyzed by examining the consumption behavior of savory food in relation to the age of elderly individuals in Thailand. MANOVA (Multivariate Analysis of Variance) was used for testing purposes. The subsequent results indicated that, there was no significant difference in the behavior of savory food consumption based on the gender and age range of Thai elderly participant in the statistical analysis. When considering the average results, males showed a higher preference for savory food, particularly boiled and curry dishes, compared to females. This trend was especially evident among the age range of 70-79 years old, where participants tended to choose food according their personal preferences and familiarity with certain dishes. This can be concluded that, neither gender nor age range significantly affected the food consumption behavior of Thai elderly participants. The choice of food remained consistent across genders and age groups, these factors did not play a crucial role in influencing food choices among the Thai elderly population.