ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Nutritional vulnerability and its associated characteristics among the elderly in Seoul: Analysis of data from the Seoul Food Survey 2024
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Food and Nutrition, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 2Research Institute of Human Ecology, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 3Institute on Aging, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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Background: With South Korea transitioning into a super-aged society in 2024, nutritional vulnerability among the elderly is a growing concern, particularly in Seoul with its large elderly population. This study aimed to identify nutritionally vulnerable elderly individuals in Seoul and examine associated sociodemographic and dietary characteristics using the Nutrition Quotient for the Elderly (NQ-E). Methods: This study analyzed data on 720 elderly individuals aged 65 years or older from the raw data of the Seoul Food Survey 2024. Based on their scores calculated using NQ-E, respondents were categorized into high, medium, and low grades. In this study, individuals in the low grade were defined as the nutritionally vulnerable group, while those in the medium and high grades were classified as the non-vulnerable group to facilitate analysis of group-specific characteristics. Sociodemographic and dietary characteristics of the two groups were compared. Logistic regression was conducted to identify these characteristics associated with nutritional vulnerability. Results: A total of 19.0% of respondents were classified as nutritionally vulnerable. Logistic regression analysis revealed, among the total elderly population, men were more likely to be nutritionally vulnerable than women (OR=2.88, 95% CI: 1.29–6.44). Those with middle school graduation or less had higher odds of nutritional vulnerability compared to those with high school graduation or higher (OR= 3.42, 95% CI: 1.52–7.70). Higher food literacy was associated with lower odds of nutritional vulnerability across all groups: total elderly population (OR= 0.90, 95% CI: 0.87-0.93), elderly men (OR=0.91, 95% CI: 0.86-0.96), and elderly women (OR= 0.88, 95% CI: 0.83-0.93). Among elderly men, those with lower educational level (middle school graduation or less) were more likely to be nutritionally vulnerable (OR= 8.63, 95% CI: 2.63–28.26), and those living alone were more likely to be nutritionally vulnerable compared to those living with others (OR=3.42, 95% CI: 1.14–10.27). Discussion: These findings underscore the importance of implementing targeted interventions to reduce nutritional vulnerability among older adults in Seoul, particularly elderly men living alone. Future research and policy efforts should focus on food literacy as a potential approach to address nutritional vulnerability among the elderly.
Keywords: Aged, Dietary characteristics, Dietary quality, Nutrition quotient (NQ), Seoul
Received: 09 Jul 2025; Accepted: 10 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Lee, Nam, Yoo, Park and Yoon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jihyun Yoon
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