Abstract
Home cooking is associated with improved diet quality. Non-Hispanic Blacks, a population with diet-quality related health disparities, report lower home cooking than other racial/ethnic groups. Factors and subsequent dietary outcomes associated with this cooking disparity are relatively unknown. A secondary analysis was performed using demographic and consumer behavior data from the 2007–2010 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to identify factors associated with household cooking frequency of dinner among Non-Hispanic Blacks. Self-reported dietary data were used to calculate Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010) to determine cooking related objective diet quality. Lower income, unemployment, and higher perceived diet quality were significantly associated with higher cooking frequency (p < 0.05). For diet quality, higher vegetable (p = 0.031), lower empty calorie intake (p = 0.002), higher dinner time protein (p = 0.004) and lower dinner time dairy intake (p = 0.003) were associated with cooking. Total HEI scores were associated with higher cooking frequency for middle income (p = 0.007), but not higher or lower income categories (p = 0.306; p = 0.384), respectively. On average, factors associated with cooking frequency were psychosocial, income, and employment related. Objective diet quality as measured by HEI was variable. Future dietary studies among Non-Hispanic Blacks should include cooking, socioeconomic status and perceived diet quality as particularly relevant factors of interest.
Highlights
Poor diet quality is an important risk factor for chronic disease, including diet-related diseases such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease [1]
We found that higher cooking frequency was significantly associated with higher diet quality as measured for HEI components during daily and dinnertime intakes when controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) variables, such as income and education
Our finding suggests the likely importance of available time to cook in our sample in that not working was more likely to be independently associated with high cooking frequency
Summary
Poor diet quality is an important risk factor for chronic disease, including diet-related diseases such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease [1]. Based on population-based survey data, Non-Hispanic Blacks, a U.S population with lower adherence to U.S dietary guidelines [4] and higher prevalence of diet-related diseases [5], report lower cooking activity than other racial/ethnic groups. Non-Hispanic Blacks were more likely to live in households with lower dinner cooking frequency when compared with Non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanic-Americans. Demographic and socioeconomic status (SES) factors associated with higher cooking frequency among the general U.S population include female gender, higher socioeconomic status (SES) as measured by income and education, increased age, increased household size, and classification of being food insecure [7,8,9]. Given the specific food culture and history among Non-Hispanic Blacks in the U.S, it is expected that factors affecting cooking frequency may be complex and multifactorial
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