Socioeconomic Status and Diet Quality in College Students
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Joshua Doyle; Friedolin Merhout
- Source
- Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. 51:1107-1112
- Subject
- Adult
Male
Universities
030309 nutrition & dietetics
education
Medicine (miscellaneous)
030209 endocrinology & metabolism
Healthy eating
Family income
Food Supply
Young Adult
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Humans
Students
Socioeconomic status
Consumption (economics)
0303 health sciences
Nutrition and Dietetics
Diet
Unhealthy food
Cross-Sectional Studies
Social Class
Diet quality
Ordinary least squares
Female
Psychology
Demography
Poverty level
- Language
- ISSN
- 1499-4046
Objective To investigate the existence and trajectory of diet disparities among college students from different socioeconomic statuses (SESs). Methods A random sample of freshman and sophomore students was invited to participate in an online survey on eating behaviors. Ordinary least squares regressions were fit to 148 complete responses to examine the association between family income ≤200% of the federal poverty level and overall, healthy, and unhealthy food consumption. Results Low-SES students reported eating significantly more unhealthy food during their freshman year than their non–low-SES peers. This difference is not statistically significant for second-year students and robust to on-campus spending power. Conclusions and Implications Disparities in diets for students from different socioeconomic backgrounds that were observed in the freshman year of college were absent in the sophomore year. Awareness of these disparities and trend is important to broadly promote healthy eating.