Variations in compliance with recommendations and types of meat/seafood/eggs according to sociodemographic and socioeconomic categories.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Strategic goals for meat/seafood/egg consumption include variety and adherence to recommendations while avoiding excessive intake. The aim of this study was to investigate their association with sociodemographic and -economic characteristics in a general population of French adults.

METHODS

Dietary intake was assessed using at least six 24-hour dietary records collected during a 2-year period from 4,574 subjects aged 45-60 years who participated in the SU.VI.MAX cohort study from 1995 to 1997. Compliance with the meat/seafood/egg (1-2 servings/day) and the specific seafood (> or =2 servings/week) recommendations, variety and daily costs were compared across sociodemographic and -economic categories using logistic regression and covariance analyses.

RESULTS

Compliance with the sea- food recommendation was associated with older age (p(trend)< 0.0001), higher education level (p(trend) = 0.0002) and higher occupational category (p = 0.007). The variety of meat/seafood/egg intake was positively correlated with higher occupational category (p = 0.02) and not living alone (p = 0.01). The meat/seafood/egg budget spent on white meat was higher for younger subjects (p(trend) = 0.007) with a lower education level (p(trend) = 0.001) and occupational category (p = 0.0006). In contrast, fish costs increased with age (p(trend) = 0.002) and education level (p(trend) = 0.0002), while red meat costs were positively correlated with higher occupational category (p = 0.02).

CONCLUSIONS

Compliance with recommendations, variety and types of meat/seafood/eggs differed across sociodemographic and -economic categories.