Sociodemographic Characteristics and Food Habits of Organic Consumers--a Study from the Danish National Birth Cohort

Overview

Journal Public Health Nutr

Publisher Cambridge University Press

Date 2012 Sep 14

PMID 22971358

Citations 16

Authors

Sesilje B Petersen

Morten A Rasmussen

Marin Strom

Thorhallur I Halldorsson

Sjurdur F Olsen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: To develop a basis for building models that can examine the impact of organic food (OF) choices on maternal and offspring health, including identification of factors associated with OF consumption and underlying dietary patterns.

Design: Dietary intake was collected for the preceding month from an FFQ in mid-pregnancy and information on sociodemographic characteristics was collected from telephone interviews during pregnancy. From a question about OF consumption in the FFQ, including six food categories, an OF preference index was calculated. Latent variables that captured the variability in OF choices in relation to dietary intake were defined.

Setting: The Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC), 1996-2002.

Subjects: Pregnant women from DNBC (n 60,773).

Results: We found that frequent OF use was highly associated with age, occupational status, urbanization, smoking and vegetarianism. By principal components analysis we identified two eating patterns, a ‘Western dietary pattern’ and a ‘Prudent dietary pattern’, that explained 14.2% of the variability in data. Frequent OF users consumed a more ‘prudent’ diet compared with non-users and had significantly higher intakes of vegetables (167%), fibre (113%) and n-3 fatty acids (111%) and less saturated fat (28%).

Conclusions: Frequent OF users seemed to have a healthier lifestyle than non-users. These findings highlight a major challenge in observational studies examining the impact of OF consumption on health due to potentially irremediable confounding factors.

Citing Articles

The Level of Adherence to Organic Food Consumption and Risk of Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Theodoridis X, Papaemmanouil A, Papageorgiou N, Georgakou A, Kalaitzopoulou I, Stamouli M Life (Basel). 2025; 15(2).

PMID: 40003569 PMC: 11856173. DOI: 10.3390/life15020160.

Factors Driving Individuals' Attitudes toward Sugar and Sweet-Tasting Foods: An Analysis within the Scope of Theory of Planned Behavior.

Kural Enc H, Kahriman M, Gencalp C, Yilmaz S, Kose G, Bas M Foods. 2024; 13(19).

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Supplement use in relation to dietary intake in pregnancy: an analysis of the Swedish GraviD cohort.

Forsby M, Winkvist A, Barebring L, Augustin H Br J Nutr. 2023; 131(2):256-264.

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Urinary glyphosate and AMPA levels in a cross-sectional study of postmenopausal women: Associations with organic eating behavior and dietary intake.

Lucia R, Liao X, Huang W, Forman D, Kim A, Ziogas A Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2023; 252:114211.

PMID: 37393842 PMC: 10503538. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2023.114211.

Perspective: Organic food consumption during pregnancy and the potential effects on maternal and offspring health.

Liu B, Curl C, Brantsaeter A, Torjusen H, Sun Y, Du Y Adv Nutr. 2023; 14(1):12-21.

PMID: 36811584 PMC: 10102986. DOI: 10.1016/j.advnut.2022.11.001.

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