Background: Patterns may explain part of the dietary variation between subjects.
Objective: To create a typology of carbohydrate intake among the elderly and to analyse whether it seems valuable or not.
Design: Factor and cluster-analyses of dietary interviews from two elderly cohorts of free-living elderly people in Göteborg, Sweden.
Subjects and methods: Three hundred and thirty seven women and three hundred and twenty three men aged 70-79 was studied cross-sectionally and longitudinally. The altogether 917 dietary interviews were based on the dietary history method. Cluster analysis, based on factor scores, was used to create the typology.
Results: Seven clusters were identified: 1) Small eaters (high relative intake of starch and a low energy intake), 2) Lean and green eaters (high intake of dietary fibre), 3) Fruit eaters (high intake of monosaccharides), 4) Sweet tooth eaters (high intake of sucrose), 5) Gourmands (high absolute intake of starch, dietary fibre and energy), 6) Milk drinkers (high intake of lactose) and 7) Fat eaters (high intake of fat and low intake of carbohydrates). The different patterns were associated with different food consumption, different intake of micronutrients and different social and physiological factors. There were also changes over time of the proportion of subject within the clusters.
Conclusions: The typology found by using cluster analysis, seems to be valid and was related to all analysed dimensions. Therefore, the methods may be valuable for describing and analysing the dietary intake among elderly.