Price Changes Alone Are Not Adequate to Produce Long-Term Dietary Change

Abstract

Taxation has been proposed as a means to reduce consumption of unhealthy food items. However, it is unknown if taxation without regulations or other activities known to shift eating behaviors lead to long-term dietary change. This unexplored issue is examined using data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. Data were from adults aged 25–55 y who participated in the nationally representative Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. Twenty-four–hour dietary recalls, detailed food expenditure data, and community-level food prices collected over 1994–2005 were used for these analyses. Longitudinal random effects models were used to test the relation of time on the structure of diet while controlling for total household expenditures. The proportion of total energy consumed from fat was higher in all other years combined compared with 1998 (P < 0.001). The proportion of dietary fat from high-fat meat and high-fat dairy items were lowest in 1998 and increased over subsequent years despite increasing costs. Percent fat from fats and oils continued to decline with rising costs. Price changes led to substantial shifts in the structure of food consumption. However, except for the most expensive items, consumption of items returned to levels consumed in the former Soviet Union following price stabilization.