FOI Seminar 13 January 2012

Sinne Smed (FOI)

 

Seasonal and educational patterns in unhealthy eating - Coping through New Year’s resolutions?

 

Friday 13 January 2012, 12.30-13.30, Building A, first floor (the B.S. Jørgensen seminar room)

Abstract:

It is a well known phenomenon that dietary patterns, despite there habitual nature, follow strong seasonal patterns especially around holidays and other special occasions. Furthermore, it is well known that there is a correlation between socio-economic status and unhealthy eating patterns. In this paper, we study whether seasonal patterns in the healthiness of diets varies with age and educational status. A social gradient is identified, which reveals that those with a short education eat less healthily than those with a longer education, whereas the age difference in the healthiness of diets is identified to be caused by older households having higher expenditure on food than younger. Furthermore, we find strong indications of seasonality in terms of decreased healthiness during the summer as well as strongly increased healthiness in January. The size and persistence of this “New Year resolution” effect vary considerable over groups with different levels of education and with age.