ArticleNutrition journal2020
To what extent do dietary costs explain socio-economic differences in dietary behavior?
Article in Nutrition journal, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Educational Gradient in the Adherence to the Healthy Nordic Food Index Among Adult Men and Women in Tromsø: The Tromsø study 2015-2016.Food & nutrition research · 2026Article
- The association between diet price and diet quality among Australian adults participating in the 2020 International Food Policy Study.The British journal of nutrition · 2025Article
- Prevalence and factors associated with inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables in a population from Northern Angola.African health sciences · 2025Observational
- The Relationship between Diet Costs and Dietary Adequacy: A Scoping Review of Measures and Methods with a Focus on Cost Estimation using Food Supply Data.The Journal of nutrition · 2025Article
- Determinants of vegetable food choice in families with limited food budgets in England: a focus group study to inform vegetable promotion programmes.Journal of nutritional science · 2025Article
- Role of food choice motives in the socio-economic disparities in diet diversity and obesity outcomes in Kenya.PloS one · 2024Article
- The cost of healthy versus current diets in the Netherlands for households with a low, middle and high education.SSM - population health · 2022Article
- Correction to: To what extent do dietary costs explain socio-economic differences in dietary behavior?Nutrition journal · 2022Article
- The role of material and psychosocial resources in explaining socioeconomic inequalities in diet: A structural equation modelling approach.SSM - population health · 2022Article
- Sociodemographic and Lifestyle Determinants of Adherence to Current Dietary Recommendations and Diet Quality in Middle-Aged Spanish Premenopausal Women.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Article
- Healthy eating: a matter of prioritisation by households or policymakers?Public health nutrition · 2021Article
- Dietary Patterns, Their Nutrients, and Associations with Socio-Demographic and Lifestyle Factors in Older New Zealand Adults.Nutrients · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLow socio-economic position is associated with consumption of lower quality diets, which may be partly explained by the cost of healthier diets. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the mediating role of dietary costs in the association between educational level and diet quality.
methodsWe used cross-sectional data from Dutch older adults (N = 9399) in the EPIC-NL cohort. Participants provided information about their own and their partners' highest attained educational level (as proxy for socio-economic position). Dietary behavior was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire from which we derived two diet-quality scores, including the Dutch Healthy Diet index 2015 (DHD15-index) and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet. Dietary cost estimates were based on food price data from food stores, and linked to reported consumption of food items. Multiple regression analyses and bootstrapping were used examine the mediating role of dietary cost in the association between educational level and diet quality.
resultsMean age of participants was 70 (SD: 10) years and 77% were women. Dietary costs significantly mediated the association between educational level and diet quality, except for high versus middle individual educational level and the DHD15-index. Depending on the dietary and educational indicator, dietary costs explained between 2 and 7% of the association between educational level and diet quality. Furthermore, associations were found to be modified by sex and age. For the DHD15-index, mediation effects were only present in females and adults older than 65 years, and for the DASH diet mediation effects were only present in females and strongest amongst adults older than 65 years compared to adults younger than 65 years.
conclusionDietary costs seems to play a modest role in explaining educational differences in diet quality in an older Dutch population. Further research is needed to investigate which other factors may explain SEP differences in diet quality.
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