Abstract

The study was carried out to examine the influence of cultural and demographic variables as determinants of nutritional status of the elderly people in Akwa Ibom State. The population of this study comprised all 59,545 elderly people in Akwa Ibom State. The study adopted a correlational survey design, while multi- stage sampling technique involving the stratified random sampling technique and simple random sampling technique were used in selecting 400 respondent determined by “Taro Yamane” formula. The instrument for data collection, which were tagged “Demographic Variables, Cultural Factors and Elderly Nutritional Status Questionnaire (DVCFENSQ), was administered to the respondent used for the study. The instrument passed through face and content validation by three experts each from Agricultural/Home Science Education Department in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike and two from Department of Home Economics, Nutrition and Dietetics University of Uyo.  The reliability test was conducted with 30 elderly people from villages which was not part of the study and it produce the average reliability coefficient of 0.81, proving the instrument to be reliable for the study. Data collected were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation analysis. From the results of the data analysis, it was observed that the result of research question proved that there was moderately high relationship between the two variables, indicating that cultural indices to a positive, high extent influence the nutritional status of the elderly people in Akwa Ibom State. It was also observed that income to a positive, strong extent influences the nutritional status of the elderly people. Thirdly the result of the research question three indicates that educational status to a positive, low extent influence the nutritional status of the elderly people in Akwa Ibom State. Equally, all the hypotheses were found significant. It was therefore concluded that cultural and demographic variables have remarkably determined the nutritional status of the elderly people. One of the recommendations was that the elderly People in the community should be encouraged to embrace good cultural practices   since it has been found to influence their nutritional status.