Eating location is associated with the nutritional quality of the diet in Norwegian adults

Abstract

Objective: To study the association between dinner eating location and the nutritional quality of the specific dinner meal and the whole-day dietary intake and to compare the diets of those consuming ≥25% of energy out of home and at school/work (SOH; substantial out-of-home eaters) with those consuming <25% of energy out (NSOH; non-substantial out-of-home eaters).

Design: Cross-sectional dietary survey using two non-consecutive 24 h recalls. Recorded eating locations were at home, other private households, work/school, restaurant/cafeteria/fast-food outlet and travel/meeting.

Setting: Nationwide, Norway (2010-2011).

Subjects: Adults aged 18-70 years (n 1746).

Results: Dinners at restaurants and other private households were higher in energy than home dinners (P < 0.01). Restaurant dinners contained less fibre (g/MJ; P < 0.01) and had a higher percentage of alcohol consumers (P < 0.05), while dinners at other private households had a higher percentage of energy from sugar (P < 0.001) and a higher percentage of consumers of sugar-sweetened beverages (P < 0.05) than home dinners. Most differences between dinners consumed at different eating locations were also observed in dietary intakes for the whole day. SOH-eaters had a higher energy intake (P < 0.01), a higher percentage of energy from sugar (P < 0.01) and a lower fibre intake (P < 0.01) than NSOH-eaters. The percentages of consumers of alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages were higher (P < 0.01) among SOH-eaters.

Conclusions: Dinner eating location was significantly associated with the nutritional quality of the diet, both for the specific dinner meal and for whole-day intake. Our data generally point to healthier dinners being consumed at home. SOH-eaters had a less favourable dietary intake than NSOH-eaters.