Effect of Acculturation on Nutritional Dietary Habits of Arab Women Living in Ireland

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of acculturation on food practices, habit changes, food preferences, and nutritional awareness among Arabic women living in Ireland compared with their original behaviour in their own countries. Arabic adult females aged of eighteen years or older who had lived in Ireland for at least six months were personally interviewed to fill a specially designed questionnaire sheet. The questionnaire sheet concerned with females' personal and demographic data and information related to their nutritional attitudes. Data included age, weight, height, country of origin, marital status, number of children, employment status, and length of residence in Ireland of the participants, nutritional awareness and changes occurred in their dietary and eating habits after living in Ireland. The collected data revealed that high percentage of the women (70%) came from African Arabic countries with average body mass index (BMI) of 26.587 that considered as an overweight indicator. About half (47.5%) of the females finished high education and tended to decrease their meals from three to only two meals per day by skipping the dinner meal. About three quarter of the sample (72.5%) changed their dietary habits in different manners such as decreasing the number of meals per day (47.5%) and the timing of the meals to be earlier (60%). Also, about 40% of the Arabic women residing in Ireland get used to have the Irish breakfast, especially in week days, while most of them preferred to eat Arabic breakfast during weekends. Meanwhile, 77.5% of them reported that their consumption of snacks increased because these kinds of foods are more affordable and accessible in Ireland. The statistical analysis using chi-square (χ 2) test indicated that there was significant differences in the nutritional knowledge score among women of different educational levels with χ 2 =10.416 (P≥0.033) and in women with different length of residence in Ireland as χ 2 =10.867 (P ≥0.028).