To Cook or Not to Cook: Correlates of Meal Preparation Enjoyment

Abstract

Objective: Identify correlates of meal preparation enjoyment and test for a relationship between meal preparation enjoyment and self-rated diet quality.

Methods: Data (n = 12,412) used in this study are from the 2022 American Time Use Survey. Ordinal logistic regression models were estimated for both aims.

Results: Results indicated that 40.2% of participants reported enjoying meal preparation a lot, and 14.6% reported having excellent diet quality. Multivariable models indicated higher odds of reporting greater meal preparation enjoyment among individuals who were married and had sufficient home food availability. Individuals who enjoyed meal preparation a lot had 174% greater odds of reporting higher diet quality than those who did not enjoy meal preparation at all.

Conclusions and implications: Individual and household-level factors are associated with meal preparation enjoyment. These findings may inform the development of interventions aimed at increasing meal preparation as a means to improve diet quality.

Keywords: cooking; diet quality; health disparities; meal preparation.