This study was designed to investigate and quantify components of the connotative meaning of foods, and to analyze the correlations between food concepts and food frequencies on elderly Korean. It involves adapting a communications research tools, the semantic differential and demonstrating its use with two population groups, urban and rural aged. The data were collected by interviewing 217 males and females of 70 years of age and older living in urban and rural areas. To assess how they feel and what they know about foods, the instrument which contains concepts of price, taste, goodness of health, interest, usuality, likes and dislikes, appetite, fattening, quality, and nutritive value about foods were developed. The result shows that there are significant correlations between food concepts and food frequencies. The more affirmative concepts the elderly have, the more food frequencies tend to be. positive concepts are appeared on the meat, fishes, vegetables & fruits, Kimchi and the rice, but negative connotations are appeared on the milk and sugar. There are significant differences between the urban and rural elderly on food concepts.

• 정진은 | Chung, Chin-Eun