Household Food Consumption Typologies: Examining Population Adherence to Healthy Eating Guidelines for Evidence-Informed Policy Making

Abstract

Food and nutrition are important issues of interest to policy makers, practitioners, and academics around the world due to the far-reaching consequences for society, households and individuals, and guidelines related to food consumption have been included in several policies both nationally and internationally. This study identifies household ‘typologies’ with regard to household food consumption of ‘marker’ food groups, and examines related associations with household demographics, analysing quantitative data on households (n = 4144) from the most recently available Northern Ireland Health Survey (2014/2015). Latent Class Analysis identified five household typologies; ‘Hedonistic Households (19%), Healthier Households (13%), General Households (42%), Unhealthier Households (3%), Balanced Households (23%)’, which individually vary in their adherence to recommended guidelines, and in their demographic composition. The study provides insight into how households’ dietary consumption patterns accord with government recommendations, and findings have implications for policy, for example through informing decision-making related to promoting behavioural change, and informing future collection of data related to ‘marker’ food groups.