ASPO Abstracts
Sociodemographic and health-related correlates of noticing calorie information on restaurant menus.
Category: Lifestyles Behavior, Energy Balance & Chemoprevention
Conference Year: 2023
Abstract Body:
Purpose: To describe correlates of US adults noticing calorie information on menus at fast food and sit down restaurants after implementation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Menu Labeling Final Rule in May 2018; this policy required that restaurant chains with more than 20 locations list calorie information on menus. Methods: We analyzed data from the National Cancer Institute's 2020 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 5, Cycle 4). Only respondents with complete data for the following variables of interest were included in the analyses: noticing calorie information on menus, age, birth gender, race/ethnicity, education, feelings about income, general health, medical conditions like diabetes, ever had cancer, BMI, whether knowing one is genetically at high risk for developing cancer changes behavior, and use of wearable devices to track health. Odds ratios (OR), 95% confidence intervals (CI), and p-values were calculated. A multivariate logistic regression model was considered using all variables that were univariately significant with p<0.10. Using backward elimination, variables that were not significant with p>0.05 were removed one- at-a-time until the remaining variables were significant collectively with p<0.05. Results: Complete data were available for 3,090 respondents in the HINTS 5 cycle 4 data set: 1,542 (48.5% weighted) had noticed calorie information on menus and 1,548 (51.5% weighted) did not. Univariately, the odds of noticing calorie information on menus were 1.4 times higher for females than males, 1.8 times higher for college graduates versus non-college graduates, 1.7 times higher among individuals living comfortably on their present income versus those finding it difficult or very difficult, 1.6 times higher for those with excellent or very good health compared to fair or poor health, and 1.9 times higher among individuals who wear a health tracking device. Multivariately, 3 covariates remained significant with higher odds of noticing calorie information on menus: female gender (adjusted OR 1.3), college education (1.6), and wearable device (1.8). Conclusions: In a nationally representative sample of US adults, noticing calorie information on menus was associated with gender, education, and use of wearable devices.
Keywords: diet, eating, menus, calories