LONGITUDINAL DIETARY-CHANGES BETWEEN 1984-5 AND 1991-2 IN BRITISH ADULTS - ASSOCIATIONS WITH SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC, LIFE-STYLE AND HEALTH FACTORS

The study aimed to examine dietary changes and their associations with demographic, lifestyle and health variables in a random sample of Bri tish adults. The Health and Lifestyle Survey of 1984-5 (HALS1) identif ied four main dietary components by principal component analysis from food frequency data. Comparison of the HALS1 dietary component scores with those of the follow-up survey of 1991-2 (HALS2) for the same indi viduals revealed increases on component 1 (high weightings for fresh f ruit, salads, 'brown' bread, fruit juice and green vegetables but low weightings for chips, fried food and processed meat). There were subst antial decreases on component 2 (high weightings for puddings/pies, ca ke, potatoes, biscuits, preserves, pulses and meat), small increases o n component 3 (high weightings for crisps, soft drinks and chips) and increases on component 4 (high weightings for confectionery, biscuits and cake and low weightings for vegetables of all kinds). Except for w omen on component 3 the changes were all significant, P < 0.001. Unadj usted score changes were smallest in elderly respondents for all compo nents. Differences in score changes between groups were based on an an alysis of covariance adjusting for the HALS1 score. On component 1 the largest score increases were associated with non-manual groups, impro vements in lifestyle and good health. For component 2 the greatest cha nges in score were associated with changes in household size, smoking habit and heavy drinking. Score increases on component 3 were also ass ociated with heavy drinking, whilst the largest rises on component 4 w ere amongst the nonmanual, the non-drinkers and the non-smokers and, f or women only, those who had few malaise symptoms or who lived in Scot land. The results show that there have been overall dietary changes an d that changes have been associated with longitudinal alterations in s ocio-demographic, lifestyle and health circumstances.