The association between socioeconomic status and eating habits among adolescents in Hong Kong

Abstract

Background: The association between socioeconomic status (SES) and diet habits has been identified in many studies across the globe. However, studies about association between SES and dietary habits are limited in Hong Kong, especially among the adolescents. Therefore, this study was proposed to identify some of the SES measures and their association between some dietary choices among this population. Objective: The primary objectives in this study is to describe the association of diet with socioeconomic position among Hong Kong‘s adolescents, and to assess whether the results differ depending on which indicator, parental education, parental occupation and family affluence, is used. Method: This is a cross-sessional study carried out on 21,721 participants who are in Form 1 – Form 7 from 42 schools. Demographic variables; three SES measures: highest parental education, highest parental occupation and family affluence; and consumption frequency of four food groups: vegetables; fruits; high-fat foods; junk foods and soft drink were obtained and assessed by a standardized questionnaire. In cross-sectional analysis, multivariate logistic regression was used to identify association between the four food groups intake frequency and the three SES measures. Result: Parental education is not found to be significantly associated with sufficient consumption of vegetable nor moderate/high consumption of high-fat foods and junk foods/ soft drink. However, it is found that adolescent with the highest parental education level (post-secondary level) have a higher likelihood of consuming sufficient fruits (OR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.24 to 1.65). Similarly to parental education, parental occupation is also found to be not significantly associated with sufficient consumption of vegetable and moderate/high consumption of high-fat foods, junk foods and soft drink. Conversely, a higher occupational status of the parent is associated with a less likelihood of the adolescent consuming sufficient amount of fruits. In terms of family affluence, a higher perceiving family economic status is found to be associated with a decrease tendency of consuming moderate-high consumption of junk foods and soft drink (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.96). Conclusion: This study finding does not support the use of parental education and occupation as a proxy to measure the association between SES and dietary habit. On the other hand, findings implies that subjective appraisal of one‘s family affluence is a good determinant of sufficient intake of particular food groups.