Abstract
ObjectiveTo examine whether psychosocial factors mediate (explain) the association between socioeconomic position and takeaway food consumption.DesignA cross-sectional postal survey conducted in 2009.SettingParticipants reported their usual consumption of 22 takeaway food items, and these were grouped into a “healthy” and “less healthy” index based on each items' nutritional properties. Principal Components Analysis was used to derive three psychosocial scales that measured beliefs about the relationship between diet and health (α = 0.73), and perceptions about the value (α = 0.79) and pleasure (α = 0.61) of takeaway food. A nutrition knowledge index was also used. Socioeconomic position was measured by highest attained education level.SubjectsRandomly selected adults (n = 1,500) aged between 25–64 years in Brisbane, Australia (response rate = 63.7%, N = 903).ResultsCompared with those with a bachelor degree or higher, participants with a diploma level of education were more likely to consume “healthy” takeaway food (p = 0.023) whereas the least educated (high school only) were more likely to consume “less healthy” choices (p = 0.002). The least educated were less likely to believe in a relationship between diet and health (p<0.001), and more likely to have lower nutritional knowledge compared with their highly educated counterparts (p<0.001). Education differences in beliefs about the relationship between diet and health partly and significantly mediated the association between education and “healthy” takeaway food consumption. Diet- and health-related beliefs and nutritional knowledge partly and significantly mediated the education differences in “less healthy” takeaway food consumption.ConclusionsInterventions that target beliefs about the relationship between diet and health, and nutritional knowledge may reduce socioeconomic differences in takeaway food consumption, particularly for “less healthy” options.
Highlights
IntroductionDiet is a major contributing factor to the poor health of socioeconomically disadvantaged groups [3,4], and the dietary patterns of these groups are less likely to be consistent with dietary recommendations [5,6]
There are well-established socioeconomic inequalities in health [1,2]
We examine the relationship between socioeconomic position (SEP) and the consumption of ‘‘takeaway food’’, here defined as foods or meals that are preprepared commercially and require no further preparation by the consumer, and can be consumed immediately after purchase
Summary
Diet is a major contributing factor to the poor health of socioeconomically disadvantaged groups [3,4], and the dietary patterns of these groups are less likely to be consistent with dietary recommendations [5,6]. Previous studies have reported that socioeconomically disadvantaged groups are more likely than their advantaged counterparts to consume or purchase takeaway food [7,8,9,10] and this might partly explain why disadvantaged groups have a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity [11] and why they experience higher rates of mortality and morbidity for diet-related chronic disease [3,4,12,13]. It has been suggested that psychosocial factors might contribute to this association [14,15,16,17]; no known study has investigated this issue
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