Eating healthy a challenge for elderly Chinese

By Karen Cook

Elderly Chinese immigrants are at greater risk for a wide range of illnesses, including depression and cancer, than their counterparts in home countries, suggests new research from the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Nursing.

This difference is most likely attributed to their change in dietary habits as they age.

Xianmei Meng, a nursing master’s student, interviewed a group of Chinese Canadian seniors about the factors influencing their food choices. Although the seniors traditionally have eaten a plain, but balanced diet, they reported finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a healthy diet as they age due to financial difficulties, limited mobility and access to healthy food.

“An elderly Chinese person would prefer to go to a grocery store that has more of the Chinese variety of food and they would like to choose their own food,” explains Meng. “But as they age, it becomes more difficult for them to get to their usual grocery store.”

In addition, health information literature about healthy eating is often translated into Cantonese, which a lot of the seniors from mainland China don’t speak.

“Sometimes even a Canadian-born senior may have trouble wading through the vast resources on healthy eating that are available,” says Meng.

Meng’s supervisor, Tam Truong Donnelly, says there is little research into how social, cultural and economic differences faced by immigrant seniors influence this population’s health and health care.