Published in:
01-10-2017 | Original Article
Dietary quality among the elderly in Germany: a retirement-nutrition puzzle?
Published in: Journal of Public Health | Issue 5/2017
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Purpose
We test the hypothesis of a retirement-nutrition puzzle with data from the German National Nutrition Survey II, starting from the economic debate on whether a retirement-consumption puzzle actually exists. The major question is whether unexpected income changes following retirement cause a reduced consumption of nutrients and/or a lower dietary quality.
Methods
Three indices of dietary quality are computed for 6,504 individuals in the 50+ generation. Descriptive and inductive statistics are used first to compare retired and working people with regard to the consumption of foods and nutrients as well as their dietary quality. Then, multiple regression models are utilized in order to analyse the influence of retirement on dietary quality under ceteris-paribus conditions.
Results
The empirical findings do not support the hypothesis of a retirement-nutrition puzzle. Although retired people consume fewer nutrients than their working counterparts, their dietary quality is not worse. When income and age effects are controlled in a multivariate analysis, none of the three dietary quality indicators is significantly affected by retirement. The multivariate analysis reveals highly significant influences of other sociodemographic and personal characteristics on dietary quality within the 50+ generation.
Conclusion
The analysis suggests there is no general need to target nutrition policy at a retirement-nutrition puzzle. However, pensioners are a very diverse group, and it remains a task for future research to disaggregate the findings for different clusters of retired persons.