Association between eating patterns and sociodemographic factors in the adult population of Antioquia, Colombia

Objective: to identify the eating patterns of the adult population from Antioquia, Colombia, and their association with socioeconomic variables. Methods: a cross-sectional study was performed with a random sample of 1,394 adults aged 18 to 59 years, derived from the Antioquia Food and Nutritional Profile 2019 study. Food consumption was evaluated with a 24-hour consumption recall (R24h) and a second R24h on a non-consecutive day at 25% of the sample, food consumption was quantified in grams, and food patterns were established by factorial analysis by Principal Components with varimax orthogonal rotation. To verify the association between eating patterns and socioeconomic variables, Poisson regression was used for robust variance. Results: three eating patterns were defined that represent 28.1% of the variance: "Traditional" (9.8%), "Regional" (9.7%), and "Prudent" (8.6%). The first two were associated with demographic variables, such as gender, age, and ethnicity; while the latter was associated with socioeconomic variables such as schooling, family income, social security system, and food security classification. Conclusions: The findings of this study show that the diet of the population of the study, follows some references to food tradition, reflected in the Traditional and Regional patterns, while the Prudent pattern corresponds to the part of the population that has better socioeconomic conditions, and they probably follow it for health recommendation.