Dietary patterns and their association with socio-demographic factors in Lithuanian adult population

Abstract

Background Dietary patterns might have a greater effect on health than any single food item. A large part of the variability of dietary patterns has been shown to be due to socioeconomic factors. The aim of the current study was to determine the association between dietary patterns and socio-demographic factors using the data of Lithuanian health behaviour monitoring. Methods In 1998–2004 four cross-sectional surveys were carried out within the Finbalt Health Monitor project. For every survey random sample of 3000 Lithuanians aged 20–64 was taken from the National Population Register. The response rates varied from 61.7 to 74.4 %. The study material was collected by mailed questionnaires. Factor analysis was employed in order to reduce the number of food items in the food frequency questionnaire. Four main factors were extracted: ‘light food’, ‘sweets’, ‘heavy food’ and ‘cereals’ factors. The associations between dietary patterns and social factors were examined by applying logistic regression analysis. [...].