Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors of Sweeten Food Consumption to Reduce Health Risk Factors of Elderly with Non-communicable Diseases in Phetchaburi Province

Abstract

Nowadays, the trend of non-communicable diseases among the elderly is increasing continuously in the population around the world, including Thailand. This is one of the important risk factors associated with high consumption of sugary foods. This cross-sectional study aimed to measure the level of knowledge, attitudes, and behavior and relationships between knowledge, attitudes, and sweetened food consumption behavior to reduce health risk factors. The samples were consisted of 218 elderly patients with non-communicable diseases in Phetchaburi province. Data were collected using a questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis.

The results showed that the subjects had knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors about sugary food consumption to reduce health risk factors at a moderate level of 67.43, 60.55, and 46.79 percent, respectively. When analyzing the relationships, knowledge was positively correlated with attitudes about sweetened food consumption to reduce health risk factors (r=0.323, p=0.005). Knowledge was positively correlated with sweetened food consumption behavior to reduce health risk factors, and attitudes were positively correlated with sweeten food consumption behavior to reduce health risk factors (r=0.443, p=0.001).

It is recommended that related agencies in the area should focus on planning and jointly designing activities that promote knowledge, and good attitudes about food consumption in order to increase sugary food consumption behaviors that reduce health risks.