Income, education and occupation key drivers to adopting sustainable diets

Using data from the large NutriNet-Santé cohort web-based study, the authors set out to evaluate how socio-economic status in French adults influences their sustainable dietary food choices. strategies

Method

Participants were pooled from the large (n=37,685) NutriNet-Santé web-based prospective cohort study set up in France in 2009.

Socio-economic status was based on:

• Monthly household income was divided into five groups: <1,200 €; 1,200–1800 €; 1800–2700 €; >2700 €.

• Education was categorised into four groups: primary level, secondary level, undergraduate and postgraduate.

• Occupation was split into six categories: self-employed; managerial staff/intellectual profession; intermediate profession; employee; manual worker and never-employed.

Dietary patterns and nutritional quality were assessed using a 264-item self-administered ‘Organic’ food frequency questionnaire adapted to include frequency of organic food consumption.

The Sustainable Diet Index (SDI) score was used to assess the sustainability of the diet. The total SDI score range was modified for the study to provide total score ranges from 3 to 15, with the higher scores reflecting a greater degree of sustainability.

Results

A total of 29,119 participants data was compared across SDI score quintiles with Q1 reflecting the lowest SDI score (least sustainable diet) and Q5 the highest score (most sustainable diet).

• Individuals with the least sustainable eating habits were more often older females (65 years plus) and less likely to have children.

• Not surprising, those with the highest income also had the highest SDI scores.

• The number of participants with higher and post-graduate education increased with increasing SDI quintiles.

• SDI Q2 had the greatest proportion of low income, whilst Q5 had the highest proportion of individuals who refused to disclose their income.

Compared to individuals with the least sustainable diets (SDI Q1), individuals with the most sustainable diet (SDI Q5):

• Spent slightly more on food; 8.10 (range 2-38) Euros versus 7.43 (4-14) Euros per day respectively.

• Had lower overall energy intakes

• Consumed more and spend proportion more on plant foods

• Consumed more fruit and vegetables

• Lower education was associated with overall lower SDI [primary vs postgraduate = -0·62, 95 % CI (-0·72, −0·51)] and nutrition scores.

• Manual workers and employees had a lower SDI score compared to intermediate professionals

  • manual workers vs intermediate professionals = -0·43, 95 % CI (−0·52, −0·33)

  • employees vs intermediate professionals = -0·56, 95 % CI (−0·64, −0·48)

In summary

For sustainable diets to be achieved by all individuals, consideration has to be given to the overall socio-economic status which reflects the need for more tailored advice and support.