1
00:00:00,800 --> 00:00:05,960
Speaker 1: Five A Nights with Matthew Pantalis. Yesterday I mentioned a

2
00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:10,480
Speaker 1: story on eating alone is linked to poorer nutrition in

3
00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:16,040
Speaker 1: older adults. Research by Flinder's UNI, published in the journal

4
00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:21,599
Speaker 1: Appetite appropriately collated findings from twenty international studies examining the

5
00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:26,520
Speaker 1: relationship between eating alone and then the measurable health outcomes

6
00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:31,320
Speaker 1: amongst people living within a community of others enjoying their day,

7
00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:33,959
Speaker 1: sharing their day and maybe their meals, people aged at

8
00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:38,160
Speaker 1: sixty five and over. The lead author, Caitlin Wyman, who

9
00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:42,440
Speaker 1: is an accredited practicing dietitian and PhD candidate at Flinder's

10
00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:48,440
Speaker 1: Caring Futures Institute, is on the line. Caitlin, good evening, Hi, Matthew,

11
00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:52,199
Speaker 1: thank you for having me. So this studies altogether involves

12
00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:55,280
Speaker 1: some eighty thousand people, that's correct.

13
00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:58,080
Speaker 2: The week later, the signings, like she said, from twenty

14
00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:02,240
Speaker 2: international studies, eight older adults across twelve countries.

15
00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:08,600
Speaker 1: Okay, and interestingly, so if people eat alone often they're

16
00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:12,080
Speaker 1: not eating well, They're not happy clearly being on their

17
00:01:12,120 --> 00:01:16,080
Speaker 1: own and for whatever reason, sharing a meal does want

18
00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:16,600
Speaker 1: us for you.

19
00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:20,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess our findings show that food is definitely

20
00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:23,319
Speaker 2: more than nutrition. We know, eating is a social activity.

21
00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:27,720
Speaker 2: It influenced appetite, dietary variety, and overall well being as well.

22
00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:30,520
Speaker 1: When I read this yesterday, I did wonder if for

23
00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:36,360
Speaker 1: older people, particularly having come from back then traditionally bigger families,

24
00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:41,440
Speaker 1: I wonder if that compounds that sense of loneliness, whereas people,

25
00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:45,000
Speaker 1: you know, in more recent decades, family size has shrunk

26
00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:47,240
Speaker 1: to you know, whatever we're up to now, two point

27
00:01:47,319 --> 00:01:49,880
Speaker 1: three kids or whatever it is. And I just wonder

28
00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:51,960
Speaker 1: how much of a factor.

29
00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:55,520
Speaker 2: That is potentially. For sure, our study didn't necessarily look

30
00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:58,920
Speaker 2: at who people were eating with, but we know as

31
00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:03,520
Speaker 2: you get older, unfortunately lose social networks, maybe loss of spouse,

32
00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:07,240
Speaker 2: or it's harder to make time to spend with our

33
00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:08,639
Speaker 2: older relatives.

34
00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:14,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, so people eating alone tend to be frailer or

35
00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:17,480
Speaker 1: there's a likelihood of weight loss and a higher risk

36
00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:19,680
Speaker 1: of frailty.

37
00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:23,120
Speaker 2: So our three main findings from the study that there

38
00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:26,720
Speaker 2: were consistent associations for older people eating alone, and they

39
00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:31,280
Speaker 2: had poorer diet quality, reduced intake of key food groups fruit,

40
00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:34,359
Speaker 2: vegetables and meat, and then, like you said, that increased

41
00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:37,480
Speaker 2: risk of weight loss and frailty, which is quite concerning so.

42
00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:41,000
Speaker 1: What do we need to change to address this? How

43
00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:42,239
Speaker 1: does this change?

44
00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:45,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I guess there's two trains of thought there.

45
00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:50,160
Speaker 2: If possible, we'd encourage older people to spend more time

46
00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:53,320
Speaker 2: eating with others if they can discover shared meal programs

47
00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:56,280
Speaker 2: in their community. There's lots of councils in South Australia

48
00:02:56,680 --> 00:03:00,440
Speaker 2: and local community groups that offer shared lunch and they're

49
00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:03,760
Speaker 2: often at a reduced cost. And then I guess if

50
00:03:03,919 --> 00:03:07,600
Speaker 2: other people older people are unable to change their circumstances

51
00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:11,919
Speaker 2: and can't attend those shared meals when they are eating alone,

52
00:03:11,919 --> 00:03:14,960
Speaker 2: we'd encourage them to be more intentional with their food choices,

53
00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:18,799
Speaker 2: ensuring they're eating enough proteins if they're struggling with poor

54
00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:22,239
Speaker 2: appetite to have smaller, more regular meals across the day.

55
00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:27,600
Speaker 1: Should GPS incorporate this, you know, when they're dealing with

56
00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:31,080
Speaker 1: older patients who come in, and should they incorporate a

57
00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:34,920
Speaker 1: question about meal times and how they're going being on

58
00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:36,320
Speaker 1: their own? Yeah?

59
00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:39,720
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that was one of the recommendations in the discussion

60
00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:42,360
Speaker 2: of our paper that you mentioned was published in Appetite

61
00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:47,080
Speaker 2: for GPS and other health professionals. Just incorporating simple questions

62
00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:50,320
Speaker 2: about meal time habits could help to identify older people

63
00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:52,280
Speaker 2: that are at higher nutritional risk.

64
00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:56,360
Speaker 1: I wonder how we get about as a society. Then

65
00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:00,000
Speaker 1: putting more people in a room together at meal time.

66
00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:02,680
Speaker 1: That's the answer, ultimately, isn't it.

67
00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:05,640
Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, And it would be really great to see

68
00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:09,960
Speaker 2: some research, some intervention studies to see the impact of

69
00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:13,560
Speaker 2: shared meal times and how that impact on nutrition. Potentially

70
00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:17,520
Speaker 2: does it lead to increased weight, does lead to increased

71
00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:21,200
Speaker 2: diet quality? There's lots of areas for more work to

72
00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:21,640
Speaker 2: be done.

73
00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:25,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I suppose too. If you're older and you're

74
00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:28,800
Speaker 1: living alone, cooking becomes a bit of a chore, particularly,

75
00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:32,080
Speaker 1: you know, if you think about a good nutritious meal,

76
00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:35,480
Speaker 1: some meat, some vegs. I mean sometimes you know, depending

77
00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:37,160
Speaker 1: what you do and how you do, it can be

78
00:04:37,279 --> 00:04:39,560
Speaker 1: relatively easy or quick, or it can take a lot

79
00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:41,440
Speaker 1: of time and you can struggle with doing it, and

80
00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:44,080
Speaker 1: ultimately it just becomes such a chore that it's not

81
00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:46,520
Speaker 1: something that older people perhaps bother with.

82
00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:49,920
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. And by the time you're sixty five, you've

83
00:04:49,920 --> 00:04:53,560
Speaker 2: probably made millions of miss in your lifetime, so it's

84
00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:56,480
Speaker 2: not something that you want to be doing every single day.

85
00:04:57,120 --> 00:04:59,800
Speaker 2: We also know that aging brings a lot of physical

86
00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:03,640
Speaker 2: physiological changes as well, such as reduced hunger queues and

87
00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:08,800
Speaker 2: altered taste, and these can all impact on someone's intentions

88
00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:10,839
Speaker 2: to eat or like their motivation as well.

89
00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:15,520
Speaker 1: Absolutely, all right, So the follow up study would be, well,

90
00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:18,040
Speaker 1: the follow up result be finding ways to improve. As

91
00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:21,039
Speaker 1: you've said, there's you know, different strategies in mind to

92
00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:21,320
Speaker 1: do this.

93
00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:26,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think maybe potentially partnering with the community groups

94
00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:29,160
Speaker 2: and councilors that are already running programs and following older

95
00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:31,320
Speaker 2: adults and seeing what their nutrition outcomes are.

96
00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:34,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, And something like Meals on Wheels for instance, So

97
00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:37,120
Speaker 1: do a terrific job in supplying good nutritious food to

98
00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:43,159
Speaker 1: people across the week as they take their food around.

99
00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:46,680
Speaker 1: Does such a great job. Ultimately people are eating a

100
00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:49,040
Speaker 1: line still in that sort of situation, but at least

101
00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:49,960
Speaker 1: they're getting a good meal.

102
00:05:50,839 --> 00:05:53,200
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Meals and Meals does a great job. And like

103
00:05:53,279 --> 00:05:56,039
Speaker 2: you said, as people get the soups for the hot

104
00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:59,000
Speaker 2: mess and the dessert delivered straight to their doors. So

105
00:05:59,040 --> 00:05:59,799
Speaker 2: it's a good option.

106
00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:03,120
Speaker 1: It is a good option, all right. Appreciate your time tonight, Kitlin.

107
00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:03,520
Speaker 1: Thank you.

108
00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:05,479
Speaker 2: No worries. Thank you for having me

109
00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:09,000
Speaker 1: Caitlyn Wyman there who is an accredited practicing dietitian at

110
00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:09,840
Speaker 1: Flinders UNI