Table 2.

Dietary consumption frequency of 120 Thai adult and elderly subjects

Food item	Average intake frequencya (times/day)
	All subjects (n = 120)	Adult (n = 73)	Elderly (n = 47)	p valueb
High-carbohydrate diet
Rice	2.33 ± 0.80	2.26 ± 0.81	2.43 ± 0.80	0.196
Noodle	0.38 ± 0.44	0.42 ± 0.45	0.31 ± 0.42	0.008
Bread	0.38 ± 0.38	0.30 ± 0.25	0.51 ± 0.51	0.137
Fermented rice noodle (Khanomjeen)	0.20 ± 0.21	0.24 ± 0.23	0.13 ± 0.17	0.002
Whole grain	0.30 ± 0.43	0.24 ± 0.20	0.42 ± 0.64	0.350
Potato/sweet potato	0.14 ± 0.19	0.12 ± 0.15	0.17 ± 0.23	0.219
High-protein diet
Pork	0.71 ± 0.60	0.86 ± 0.64	0.50 ± 0.48	0.001
Chicken	0.54 ± 0.60	0.79 ± 0.67	0.26 ± 0.35	0.001
Fish	0.62 ± 0.55	0.60 ± 0.55	0.71 ± 0.54	0.010
Beef	0.14 ± 0.29	0.19 ± 0.33	0.07 ± 0.21	0.001
Egg	0.58 ± 0.41	0.61 ± 0.41	0.52 ± 0.41	0.120
Cow milk	0.29 ± 0.46	0.36 ± 0.50	0.18 ± 0.36	0.020
Dietary fiber
Vegetables	1.34 ± 0.86	1.22 ± 0.86	1.52 ± 0.84	0.019
Fruit	1.15 ± 0.81	0.92 ± 0.66	1.50 ± 0.90	0.001

^aData shown as mean ± SD

^bAverages of group differences between adult and elderly groups compared for significance at p < 0.05 using the Mann–Whitney U test (SPSS 17.0 statistical software)