Nutritional awareness, dietary choices, and weight status

To examine the associations between regular nutritional awareness and dietary choices and weight status among U.S. adults, while accounting for unobserved household- or individual-level factors that are fixed over time.

Using 2009-2011 and 2015 data on U.S. adults from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and fixed-effects (FE) models controlling for time-constant household- or individual-level unobserved heterogeneity were used to assess the relationships between regular nutritional awareness and dietary behaviors and weight status.

Pooled OLS estimations showed statistically significant associations between regular nutritional awareness and dietary choices and weight status. Individual FE estimations attenuated these associations, making the association with weight status insignificant, but still significant for certain dietary behaviors. Controlling for permanent individual-level unobserved factors, U.S. adults with regular nutritional awareness ate less at fast-food restaurants, skipped fewer meals, drank fewer sugary beverages, controlled calories more often, and ate more fruits and vegetables.

Accounting for unobserved heterogeneity, such as stable food preferences and tastes, is important when evaluating the complex nexus of nutritional awareness, dietary choices, and weight status. Policies and programs promoting nutritional awareness among U.S. adults may improve certain dietary behaviors, though broader approaches may be needed to improve weight status.