Dietary Patterns and Their Sociodemographic and Lifestyle Determinants in Switzerland: Results from the National Nutrition Survey menuCH

Abstract

From a public health perspective, determinants of diets are crucial to identify, but they remain unclear in Switzerland. Hence, we sought to define current dietary patterns and their sociodemographic and lifestyle determinants using the national nutrition survey menuCH (2014⁻2015, n = 2057). First, we applied multiple factorial analysis and hierarchical clustering on the energy-standardised daily consumption of 17 food categories. Four dietary patterns were identified ("Swiss traditional": high intakes of dairy products and chocolate, n = 744; "Western 1": soft drinks and meat, n = 383; "Western 2": alcohol, meat and starchy, n = 444; and "Prudent": n = 486). Second, we used multinomial logistic regression to examine the determinants of the four dietary patterns: ten sociodemographic or lifestyle factors (sex, age, body mass index, language region, nationality, marital status, income, physical activity, smoking status, and being on a weight-loss diet) were significantly associated with the dietary patterns. Notably, belonging to the French- and Italian-speaking regions of Switzerland increased the odds of following a "Prudent" diet (Odds ratio [95% confidence interval]: 1.92 [1.45⁻2.53] and 1.68 [0.98⁻2.90], respectively) compared to the German-speaking regions. Our findings highlight the influence of sociodemographic and lifestyle parameters on diet and the particularities of the language regions of Switzerland. These results provide the basis for public health interventions targeted for population subgroups.

Keywords: 24-h recall; clustering; dietary survey; language region; multinomial logistic regression.

Figure 1

Food consumption profiles in the four dietary patterns relative to the overall population. Energy-standardised consumptions of the 17 food categories were centred and reduced for the overall study population (z-standardisation). Each axis of the radar plots indicates the mean of the centred-reduced energy-standardised consumptions of one food category within one dietary pattern, i.e., how the consumption in a dietary pattern deviates from the consumption in the overall population. A positive and a negative value indicate consumptions above and below the mean of the overall population, respectively. ¹ Others include meat substitutes, milk substitutes and meal replacements (all categories are described in Table S1, Supplementary Materials).

Figure 2

Amounts of food consumed in the four dietary patterns and the overall population and energy-standardised consumptions of the 17 food categories (in g/1000 kcal) in the four dietary patterns and the overall study population. The weighted mean provides estimates of the mean consumption corrected for sex, age, marital status, major area, household size, nationality and the uneven distribution of 24-h dietary recalls over seasons and weekdays. Colors indicate the mean of the energy- and z-standardised consumption of one food category within one dietary pattern. ¹ Others include meat substitutes, milk substitutes and meal replacements (all categories are described in Table S1, Supplementary Materials).

Figure 3

Macronutrient contributions to total energy intake in the four dietary patterns and the overall study population. Figures indicate the mean energy (in kcal) brought by macronutrients, alcohol and fibres and their contributions to the total energy intake. The weighted mean provides estimates of the mean energy in the study population after correction for sex, age, marital status, major area, household size, nationality and the uneven distribution of 24-h dietary recalls over seasons and weekdays.

Figure 4

Effect plots of the main determinants of dietary patterns in Switzerland. Stacked bar plots indicate the probability for individuals to follow a dietary pattern as predicted by the multinomial logistic regression model (sex, age groups, BMI, language region, nationality, education, marital status, gross household income, self-reported physical activity, smoking, self-reported health, and weight-loss diet; all results are described in Table 2). Abbreviation: BMI, Body Mass Index.