TY - JOUR
T1 - Sociodemographic characteristics and food habits of organic consumers
T2 - a study from the Danish National Birth Cohort
AU - Petersen, Sesilje B.
AU - Rasmussen, Morten Arendt
AU - Strøm, Marin
AU - Halldorsson, Thorhallur I.
AU - Olsen, Sjurdur F.
PY - 2013/10
Y1 - 2013/10
N2 - Objective To develop a basis for building models that can examine the impact of organic food (OF) choices on maternal and offspring health, including identification of factors associated with OF consumption and underlying dietary patterns. Design Dietary intake was collected for the preceding month from an FFQ in mid-pregnancy and information on sociodemographic characteristics was collected from telephone interviews during pregnancy. From a question about OF consumption in the FFQ, including six food categories, an OF preference index was calculated. Latent variables that captured the variability in OF choices in relation to dietary intake were defined. Setting The Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC), 1996-2002. Subjects Pregnant women from DNBC (n 60 773). Results We found that frequent OF use was highly associated with age, occupational status, urbanization, smoking and vegetarianism. By principal components analysis we identified two eating patterns, a 'Western dietary pattern' and a 'Prudent dietary pattern', that explained 14·2 % of the variability in data. Frequent OF users consumed a more 'prudent' diet compared with non-users and had significantly higher intakes of vegetables (+67 %), fibre (+13 %) and n-3 fatty acids (+11 %) and less saturated fat (-8 %). Conclusions Frequent OF users seemed to have a healthier lifestyle than non-users. These findings highlight a major challenge in observational studies examining the impact of OF consumption on health due to potentially irremediable confounding factors.
AB - Objective To develop a basis for building models that can examine the impact of organic food (OF) choices on maternal and offspring health, including identification of factors associated with OF consumption and underlying dietary patterns. Design Dietary intake was collected for the preceding month from an FFQ in mid-pregnancy and information on sociodemographic characteristics was collected from telephone interviews during pregnancy. From a question about OF consumption in the FFQ, including six food categories, an OF preference index was calculated. Latent variables that captured the variability in OF choices in relation to dietary intake were defined. Setting The Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC), 1996-2002. Subjects Pregnant women from DNBC (n 60 773). Results We found that frequent OF use was highly associated with age, occupational status, urbanization, smoking and vegetarianism. By principal components analysis we identified two eating patterns, a 'Western dietary pattern' and a 'Prudent dietary pattern', that explained 14·2 % of the variability in data. Frequent OF users consumed a more 'prudent' diet compared with non-users and had significantly higher intakes of vegetables (+67 %), fibre (+13 %) and n-3 fatty acids (+11 %) and less saturated fat (-8 %). Conclusions Frequent OF users seemed to have a healthier lifestyle than non-users. These findings highlight a major challenge in observational studies examining the impact of OF consumption on health due to potentially irremediable confounding factors.
U2 - 10.1017/s1368980012004119
DO - 10.1017/s1368980012004119
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 22971358
SN - 1368-9800
VL - 16
SP - 1810
EP - 1819
JO - Public Health Nutrition
JF - Public Health Nutrition
IS - 10
ER -