hrvatski

Motivations associated with food choices among adults in the City of Zagreb

Food choice is determined by several factors, and one of them is motivation, which is the most important because it comes from within individuals. The aim of this study was to observe the food choice motivations and to estimate difference in socio-demographic and health characteristics according to the food choice motives in adult Croatian population. The study included 675 participants (54% women) aged ≥ 18 years. The socio-demographic and anthropometric characteristics were self-reported. The food choice determinants were observed from online questionnaire developed in Psycho-social motivations associated with food choices and eating practices (EATMOT) project. The K-means cluster analysis was used to divide participant into two clusters towards 6 food choice motivation categories (health, emotional, economic and availability, social and cultural, environmental and political, and marketing and commercial). Regarding the most and least important motivations, participants in cluster 1 chose food based on emotional motivations, and in cluster 2 based on environmental and political motivations. Although significant differences between clusters were observed in health motivations (2.95 ± 0.55 vs. 3.51 ± 0.42 ; p<0.001) and in economic and availability motivations (3.19 ± 0.64 vs. 3.03 ± 0.48 ; p=0.040), both were important motivators in both clusters. The least important motivations in both clusters were marketing and commercial (2.90 ± 0.61 vs. 2.98 ± 0.48), and social and cultural motives (2.83 ± 0.57 vs. 2.87 ± 0.47). From observe socio-demographic and health characteristics, clusters differed with respect to the age (p<0.001) and weight status (p=0.036) of the participants. The half of the participants in cluster 1 were 18 – 30 years aged, while in cluster 2 was an equal distribution of respondents in all three age groups. In terms of weight status, in the cluster 1 there were more obese participants (18.6% vs. 10.2%), while in the cluster 2 were more overweight participants (25.7% vs. 35.7%). In conclusion, health motivation, and economic and availability were most pronounced motivations in the population, while it differed with respect to the emotional, and environmental and political factors. Younger and obese individuals had more pronounced emotional motivations.

Eating behavior ; Eating determinants ; Food choice ; Motivations

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