Impact of Nutritional Risk on Self-Care Capacity: Social Support as a Source of Protection for Community-Dwelling Older Adults Living in a Rural Area
Loss of independence is a major concern for rural older adults. Older adults living in rural areas are at an increased nutritional risk, which can lead to functional impairments in self-care capacity. Identifying factors, which have a role in sustaining rural older adults' self-care capacity, c...
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Published in | The Journal of frailty & aging Vol. 2; no. 3; p. 145 |
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Main Authors | , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
France
2013
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Online Access | Get more information |
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Summary: | Loss of independence is a major concern for rural older adults. Older adults living in rural areas are at an increased nutritional risk, which can lead to functional impairments in self-care capacity. Identifying factors, which have a role in sustaining rural older adults' self-care capacity, could help with maintaining independence as long as possible.
The objective of this study was to examine the effect of social support as a moderator between nutritional risk and self-care capacity.
Cross sectional design using convenient sampling.
Rural Oklahoma counties designated as "non-metro" and having populations under 5,000.
Participants included 171 community-dwelling older adults, 65 years of age and older.
Data were collected using self-report surveys on self-care capacity (using the Duke Older Americans Resources and Services Procedures), social support (using the Social Provisions Scale), and nutritional risk (using the Mini-Nutritional Assessment short form). Using hierarchical linear regression techniques, data were analyzed to explore the moderating influence of social support in the association between nutritional risk and self-care capacity.
A significant interaction emerged between nutritional risk, social support, and self-care capacity (β = 0.20 p < 0.05). Thus, the deleterious impact of nutritional risk on self-care capacity was reduced by social support.
Results provide further support of the "buffering-hypothesis" and have implications relative to the importance of accessible social provisions to enhance self-care capacity and quality of life among older adults residing in rural settings. |
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ISSN: | 2260-1341 |
DOI: | 10.14283/jfa.2013.21 |