Changes in food habits amongst Norwegian adolescents in 2016 and 2019 according to gender and socioeconomic status

Background: Monitoring dietary habits is important in order to identify risk groups and as a basis for targeted public health initiatives.

Objective: To study trends in consumption of selected foods and beverages from 2016 to 2019 amongst Norwegian adolescents according to gender and parental education.

Design: Repeated cross-sectional study amongst 25,996 adolescents, aged 14-17 years old. Consumption of selected food and beverages was measured by an online food frequency questionnaire and general linear models were applied to estimate changes in dietary habits.

Results: Between 2016 and 2019, we observed a reduced frequency of consumption of vegetables (from 4.7 to 4.4 times/week), fruit and berries (from 4.4 to 4.2 times/week), whole-grain bread (from 5.1 to 4.2 times/week), and fish (from 2.3 to 1.6 times/week). During this time period, we also observed a reduced frequency of consumption of salty snacks (from 2.1 to 1.9 times/week), sweets (from 2.3 to 2.0 times/week), sugar-sweetened beverages (from 2.8 to 2.6 times/week), and artificially sweetened beverages (from 2.2 to 1.5 times/week). In girls, there was a decrease in the reported frequency of consumption of fruit and berries (-4%, vs. no change in boys). The decrease in consumption frequency of whole-grain bread was larger in girls than in boys (-19% vs. -14%). Further, a 17% decrease in consumption of sweets was observed amongst adolescents with no or only one parent having college/university education compared to a 13% decrease in adolescents whose both parents had college/university education.

Conclusion: Our results showed a decrease in frequency of consumption of selected healthy and unhealthy food and beverages amongst adolescents between 2016 and 2019. The gender gap in consumption of fruit and berries and whole-grain bread seemed to decrease during this time period, and the socio-economic gap in consumption of sweets seemed to disappear.