Search

Purpose: Dietary behaviors differ between socio-economic groups and are one key determinant of health inequalities. Psychological factors such as attitudes are assumed to underlie the relation between inequality and dietary behaviors, but this assumption has rarely been tested empirically. We focus on a specific food group shown as detrimental to health: processed meat., Methods: In two representative international surveys (Survey 1: N = 10,226 participants from nine European countries - Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, UK; Survey 2: N = 9149 participants from the same countries, except not including Austria and the Netherlands), participants reported inequality indicators (education, income), processed meat consumption as well as their attitudes toward nutrition and food., Principal Results: There were diverging relationships between indicators of inequality and processed meat consumption: the higher the educational attainment, the lower the consumption of processed meat (r Survey1  = -0.062, p < .001; r Survey2  = -0.071, p < .001). At the same time, higher income was related to higher processed meat consumption (r Survey1  = 0.088, p < .001; r Survey2  = 0.152, p < .001). A path model showed that four of seven attitude factors mediated the relation between education and processed meat consumption (i.e., indifference toward nutrition and food, preference for regional and fresh food, processed food consumption, health efforts); none of the attitude factors mediated the relation between income and overall processed meat consumption., Conclusions: Processed meats are consumed very frequently across European countries. The relation between inequality and processed meat consumption is heterogeneous and partially mediated by attitudes. More research is needed to better understand how psychological factors explain social inequality in nutrition behaviors and health in general., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no financial or non-financial conflict of interests., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Numerous studies show that married individuals enjoy better health than those who were never married. This representative survey examines whether they also have a healthier body mass index (BMI) and weight-related behaviors, and tests four independent explanations. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with representative samples ( N = 4555) from nine European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, UK). On average, never married respondents had a lower BMI than married respondents ( p = .048). Married individuals reported stronger preferences for organic/fair trade food and regional/unprocessed food, and paying less attention to dietary convenience or dietary fat and body weight. Importantly, married men also exercised less (all p s < .05). Despite these behavioral differences, only attention to dietary fat and body weight ( p = .001) predicted BMI differently for married versus never married men. There were few country differences in the relationship between marital status and BMI. All analyses were controlled for age and socio-economic status. In conclusion, despite more favorable eating-related cognitions and behaviors, married respondents had a higher BMI than never married respondents, but differences were small. The link between marital status and BMI cannot be fully described by one single explanation. Obesity interventions may benefit from considering specific weight-related behaviors in married versus never married individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]