Dietary patterns and socioeconomic position

Abstract

Background/Objectives: To test a socioeconomic hypothesis on three dietary patterns and to describe the relation between three commonly used methods to determine dietary patterns, namely Healthy Eating Index, Mediterranean Diet Score and principal component analysis. Subjects/Methods: Cross-sectional design in 1852 military men. Using mailed questionnaires, the food consumption frequency was recorded. Results: The correlation coefficients between the three dietary patterns varied between 0.43 and 0.62. The highest correlation was found between Healthy Eating Index and Healthy Dietary Pattern (principal components analysis). Cohen's kappa coefficient of agreement varied between 0.10 and 0.20. After age-adjustment, education and income remained associated with the most healthy dietary pattern. Even when both socioeconomic indicators were used together in one model, higher income and education were associated with higher scores for Healthy Eating Index, Mediterranean Diet Score and Healthy Dietary Pattern. The least healthy quintiles of dietary pattern as measured by the three methods were associated with a clustering of unhealthy behaviors, that is, smoking, low physical activity, highest intake of total fat and saturated fatty acids, and low intakes of fruits and vegetables. Conclusions: The three dietary patterns used indicated that the most healthy patterns were associated with a higher socioeconomic position, while lower patterns were associated with several unhealthy behaviors.

Diet cost, diet quality and socio-economic position: how are they related and what contributes to differences in diet costs?

“…In the present study, we found a small but significant indication that children whose parents had lower educational and occupational levels consumed a cheaper and less-healthy diet. The relationship between dietary quality and SEP is in line with several other studies based on both Swedish and international data (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)49) . There are, however, few studies examining the relationship between actual dietary costs and SEP. Waterlander et al found no difference in actual food costs among income levels in adults; however, they suggested that the lack of significance could be due to the small number of participants in the lowincome groups (21) .…”

Demographic, socioeconomic and nutritional determinants of daily versus non-daily sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverage consumption

“…Why a lower socioeconomic position is associated with higher consumption of sugar-sweetened beverage is not clear, but the low cost and aggressive marketing in low-income areas could be an explanation. In previous research, low socioeconomic position in this population has been associated with a clustering of unhealthy lifestyles, such as smoking, unhealthy dietary patterns and obesity (Mullie et al, 2010b). Drinking daily sugar-sweetened beverages can be seen as an unhealthy habit due to the high-energy content of the beverages and the low nutritional value.…”

Social Determinants of Risk and Outcomes for Cardiovascular Disease

“…219 Socioeconomic gradients exist for multiple health behaviors over the life course, and the combination of several unhealthy behaviors adds up to explain a large part of the socioeconomic health gap. Smoking, poor diet, inactivity, obesity, and medication nonadherence tend to be more prevalent among individuals of low SEP. [220][221][222][223][224][225] Furthermore, SEP in childhood helps account for unhealthy behaviors and health risk in the adult years. For example, a British cohort study that followed up subjects from birth to 66 years of age found that both childhood and adult SEP (ie, father's occupational class and mother's education) accounted for a significant portion of health inequalities in mortality risk by shaping exposure to smoking and other risk behaviors.…”