Eating with others and meal location are differentially associated with nutrient intake by sex: The Diabetes Study of Northern California (DISTANCE)

Abstract

Though eating with others is often a social behavior, relationships between social contexts of eating and nutrient intake have been underexplored. This study evaluates how social aspects of eating - frequencies of eating meals with others, meals prepared at home, and meals outside the home - are associated with nutrient intake. Because diet improvement can reduce complications of diabetes mellitus, we surveyed a multi-ethnic cohort of persons with type 2 diabetes (n = 770) about social aspects of diet (based on 24-hour recalls). Sex-stratified multiple regression analyses adjusted for confounders assessed the relationship between frequency of eating with others and nutrient intake (total energy, energy from fat, energy from carbohydrates, Healthy Eating Index/HEI, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension/DASH score). Although there was slight variation in men's versus women's propensity to share meals, after adjustment for confounders, there was no consistently significant association between meals with others and the 5 nutrient intake measures for either men or women. The directions of association between categories of eating with others and diet quality (HEI and DASH scores) - albeit not significant - were different for men (positive) and women (mostly negative), which warrants further investigation. The next analyses estimated nutrient intake associated with meals prepared at home, and meals consumed outside the home. Analyses indicated that greater meal frequency at home was associated with significantly better scores on diet quality indices for men (but not women), while meal frequency outside the home was associated with poorer diet quality and energy intake for women (but not men). Better measurement of social dimensions of eating may inform ways to improve nutrition, especially for persons with diabetes for whom diet improvement can result in better disease outcomes.

Assessing Commensality in Research

“…Among the identified papers on commensality assessment, 51 papers were categorized as qualitative. These were put into subcategories, such as qualitative interviews ( Table 2 ) [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ] and ethnological studies ( Table 3 ) [ 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ], log book plus interview ( Table 4 ) [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ] case studies ( Table 5 ) [ 52 , 53 ] and diverse methods ( Table 6 ) [ 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , …”

“…A great deal of the identified research is focused on health and nutrition, aiming to investigate the importance of commensality for health and wellbeing [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 22 , 24 , 26 , 30 , 33 , 39 , 46 , 58 , 65 , 67 , 69 ]. This means that data on health and health related behaviors, living conditions and sociodemographic data, need to accompany the data on commensality.…”

Development and testing of a scale to evaluate diet according to the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population

“…The Organization dimension is related to the preparation and consumption of meals at home, as indicated by the inclusion of the expression ‘in my home’ in different items. The influence of the domestic environment on eating habits has been corroborated in the literature; for example, the study by Pachucki et al ( 51 ) found a direct association between diet quality and meals prepared and consumed at home by men and inversely between meals consumed outside of home by women in a sample of diabetic individuals. The authors discuss the gender difference in the light of persistent discrepancies in household task overload.…”

Desenvolvimento e validação de uma escala autoaplicável para avaliação da alimentação segundo as recomendações do Guia Alimentar para a População Brasileira

“…The organization dimension is related to the preparation and consumption of meals at home, as indicated by the inclusion of the expression "in my home" in different items. The influence of the domestic environment on eating habits has been corroborated in the literature; for example, the study by Pachucki et al (51) found a direct association between diet quality and meals prepared and consumed at home by men and inversely between meals consumed outside of home by women in a sample of diabetic individuals. The authors discuss the gender difference in light of persistent discrepancies in household task overload.…”

“…This study is a methodological study based on knowledge of psychometry, which is a science that studies the measurement of non-directly observable phenomena (i.e., psychological phenomena) that can be characterized using a set of other attributes (19) . This feature can be useful for the construction of instruments for diet measurement in relation to the adoption of paradigms that consider diet a result of complex 51 relationships among different determinants. A self-administered scale is proposed for the Brazilian adult population (18 to 60 years old).…”