The relationship between education and food consumption in the 1995 Australian National Nutrition Survey

Abstract

Objective: To assess the relationship between education and the intake of a variety of individual foods, as well as groups of foods, for Australian men and women in different age groups. Design: Cross-sectional national survey of free-living men and women. Subjects: A sample of 2501 men and 2739 women aged 18 years and over who completed the National Nutrition Survey (NNS) 1995. Methods: Information about the frequency of consumption of 88 food items was obtained using a food-frequency questionnaire in a nation-wide nutrition survey. Irregular and regular consumers of foods were identified according to whether they consumed individual foods less than or more than once per month. The relationship between single foods and an index of education (no post-school qualifications, vocational, university) was analysed via contingency table chi-square statistics for men and women. Food group variety scores were derived by assigning individual foods to conventional food group taxonomies, and then summing the dichotomised intake scores for individual foods within each food group. Two-way analyses of variance (education by age groups) were performed on food variety scores for men and women, separately. Results: While university-educated men and women consumed many individual foods more regularly than less-educated people, they were less likely to be regular consumers of several meat products. The relationship between education and food consumption was less apparent when individual food scores were aggregated into food group scores. University-educated men and women exhibited higher scores on total food group variety than the other educational groups. Conclusions: Higher education is associated with the regular consumption of a wider variety of foods. Aggregation of individual food consumption indices into food variety scores may mask the apparent effects of educational background on food consumption.

How Often Do We Use Cooking Utensils? An Exploratory Study

“…This runs counter to findings from many studies of the influences on food consumption (Baker & Wardle, 2003;Dean et al, 2009;Drewnowski & Specter, 2004;Worsley et al, 2003;Worsley et al, 2004) which show that age, gender, and socio-economic position are often linked with food consumption. However, it is quite consistent with other analyses of this survey data, which have shown that herb and spice use and interest in cooking are also unrelated to these variables Worsley et al, 2014).…”

“…These factors include age (Dean et al, 2009), gender (Baker & Wardle, 2003), education (Worsley et al, 2004), household income (Drewnowski & Specter, 2004), ethnicity (Gilbert & Khokhar, 2008), and the number of people living in the household because more people living in the household may be associated with the need to cater to a wider range of individual preferences. Hence, utensils may be used more often.…”

Australian consumers' views of fruit and vegetable policy options

“…In addition, the fact that many fruit and vegetables are grown in peri-urban and rural regions, providing economic and employment benefits, might reinforce support for these policies in rural areas. (4) Education and household income-People with tertiary education appear to know more about food and nutrition (Wardle et al, 2000;McKernan et al, 2002), consume more varied foods and have healthier dietary habits (Finnegan et al, 1990;Kearney et al, 2000;Roos et al, 2001;Worsley et al, 2004). Similar claims have been made with respect to household income, though its effects appear to be mediated by gender .…”

Why women of lower educational attainment struggle to make healthier food choices: The importance of psychological and social factors

“…This is especially true of fresh fruit and vegetables because they are viewed as most wasteful. So, whilst it could be argued that eating healthily need not be any more expensive (Worsley, Blasche, Ball, & Crawford, 2004), it may require more advanced cooking skills and more control over family mealtimes.…”