Discussion
The present study demonstrated a major defi-ciency in the knowledge of the elderly regarding the aging process and related nutritional aspects. This was particularly evident in their knowledge about food composition and healthy dietary habits. Overall, only less than one-fifth of them had satis-factory nutritional knowledge before the study intervention (26.1%). Similar results were reported among the elderly in Malaysia where more than half of the sample had poor or very unsatisfactory knowledge [5] .
The implementation of the counseling interven-tion to the elderly of the present study led to significant improvement in their knowledge. This was noticed in all the areas assessed as well as in total knowledge. The percentage of those with total satisfactory knowledge increased more than three-fold. Jacy and Wade [6] noticed a similar improve-ment in the nutritional knowledge of African, although the posttest percentage of satisfactory knowledge was much lower (41%) compared to ours (82.6%). This difference might be explained by the fact that our posttest was administered a short time after the intervention program, which might reflect short recall. On the same line, Nori-mah et al. [7] emphasized that appropriate nutrition education interventions need to be implemented to improve the shortcomings of nutrition knowledge
among elderly. Therefore, Millen et al. [8] recom-mended that facilities with Elderly Nutrition Pro-grams are ideal settings for nutrition and health promotion interventions in the older adult popula-tion. However, most research on Elderly Nutrition Program clients is focused on documenting poor nutritional status and nutritional risk factors.