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Longitudinal data on food-related issues | Findings

Key findings

There are three key outputs to this study:

Report 1: Longitudinal data on food-related issues: a scoping study (Hall et al., 2011). Results of the scoping review and basic descriptive analyses are presented in Volume 1. Volume 2 contains the appendices, including all the tables.

Report 2: Food choices and behaviours: trends and the impact of life events (Hall et al., 2011), with more complex statistical analyses focusing on the longitudinal impact of life events on food-related outcomes.

A question design toolkit: Designing survey questions on food-related issues (d'Ardenne et al., 2011).

Below, some of the findings from Report 2 are summarised.

Families are experiencing better choice and access to food.

This report has examined trends in food-related behaviours for different cohorts of the population. For some types of behaviour - such as children sharing an evening meal with their parents - there has been no overall change in rate over the period reviewed. However, for other types of behaviour there was evidence of a change over time. For example, the proportion of families with children who experienced poor choice and access to food declined (between 2002 and 2005).

Many patterns of food-related behaviour are very stable within the individual.

The strongest predictor of whether a behaviour occurred at the last survey wave was always whether or not it had occurred at the first wave. The odds ratios for this association tended to be very high, between 5 and 10. Across survey waves the same socio-demographic factors continued to play a key role in predicting which groups experienced the worst food choices and behaviours. However, the direction of association did vary with type of behaviour. While wealthier families may be more likely to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables and less fat than more disadvantaged families, they may also be less likely to meet certain food hygiene standards (hand-washing before meals).

Across a number of surveys, men were less likely than women to eat their five items of fresh fruit a day.

Although this pattern might be changing, as the sex difference in rate was not always evident among younger generations.

Loss of a spouse impacted negatively on food behaviour.

This report focused specifically on the impact that life events might have on food-related behaviours and choices. One key life event that had a negative impact (for example on eating five-a-day) was the loss of a spouse, either through divorce, separation or bereavement. Such a finding highlights the importance of support such as that in Meals on Wheels type-programmes for older people who transition from being with a partner to living alone.

Becoming part of a lone parent household also had a negative impact on children's food behaviours.

We might hypothesise that the mechanisms for this were more likely to be economic than social given that the food-related issues particularly affected were those relating to access. Parent-child ratios, however, may also be a factor influencing some food-behaviours. While having children in the household may benefit parents in terms of salt being added less to food than in households without children, the more children there are in the household the more likely it is that the use of salt creeps up again.

The birth of a new child was a life event that triggered a decline in food hygiene practices for the existing children in the household.

Mothers of new born babies may be appropriate targets for food hygiene messages that highlight the needs of older children, alongside the guidance they already receive relating to their baby.

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