Development of Highly Popular local Food for Enhancing Health of Aging People in Upper Northern Thailand

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to develop a highly popular local food recipe meeting nutritious value suitable for aging populations who were defined as risk groups or diagnosed chronic non-communicable disease and to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed recipe to health outcomes. The study was combined qualitative process and community trial. Focus group discussion and in depth interview were performed in order to develop the recipe and assess its satisfaction. The result of the qualitative process was the manual of “top 10 highly popular local food recipe for promoting health in elderly persons”. A community experiment was then operated in 4 provinces located in the upper north of Thailand: Phrae, Payao, Lampang and Chiangrai. The study included 319 elderly persons who were at risk or known of diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and overweight. The samples were purposively divided into 2 groups: 163 and 156 persons in experiment group and control group, respectively. Both groups received health education but only the experimental group was assigned to follow the manual of “top 10 highly popular local food recipe for promoting health in elderly persons” in daily life. After one month of the intervention, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol and body mass index were recorded and compared. The results of the study presented that total cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and body mass index were significantly decrease in experimental group (p<0.05). After multivariated analysis by controlling age and exercise, the systolic blood pressure in the intervention group trended to decrease to 3.3 mmHg (p<0.05). In conclusion, the developed recipe could be beneficial for promoting health in elderly persons who were at risk or known of diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and overweight.