An introduction to data on Food and Food Security

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Introduction to data on Food and Food Security

Margherita Ceraolo and Rebecca O’Connell

9 November 2016

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Overview

• Data related to food and food security

• Searching for data on food

• Supporting documentation and useful resources

• Research case study of Food, Families and Work

o National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS)

• Further help

• Questions

Using the UK Data Service to find data on Food

• A single point of access to a wide range of secondary social science data

• Enables you to search for food data

• Offers support, training and guidance

• http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/use-data/tutorials

Food and Food Security

The food system covers a wide range of topics:

• consumer culture and attitudes toward food

• healthy diet and food safety

• food security and better access to food

• the impact of extreme weather events on food systems

• the need of a growing population for sustainable agriculture

• medical challenges of diseases caused by under/over nutrition

We hold a variety of data on these topics

Key datasets1970 British Cohort Study

1970 - ongoing; Great Britain

(longitudinal)

Diet (including 4-day diary)Consumption of ready-meals, convenience foods, take-aways, home-cooked meals and drinks

English Longitudinal Study of

Ageing

1998 - ongoing; England

(longitudinal)

Expenditure on food and groceriesWhether cut food consumption due to financial difficultyExpenditure on eating or buying food outside the householdFood and drink consumed the previous day

Farm Business Survey

1982 - ongoing; farms in England

and Wales

LivestockCropsFarm characteristicsFarm finance including costs, receipts, assets, income, subsidies

Key datasetsFood and You Survey

2010 - ongoing; adults in the UK

Behaviour, attitudes and knowledge towards food issues:Food safetyHealthy eatingShopping habits

Health Survey for England

1991 – ongoing; England

Food consumption, dietDrinks (including alcohol)Food supplementsFruit and vegetable consumption

National Diet and Nutrition

Survey

2008/2009 - ongoing; individuals in

the UK

Four-day food diaryEating habitsSmoking and drinkingGeneral healthBlood and urine samples

How many people said they never eat raw fruit? (Source: Food and You Survey, 2014)

Raw fruit consumption

Food and You Survey, 2014

Variable Q2_14_8_Slice: Q2_14 How often do you eat raw fruit ?

At the moment, how often do you eat raw fruit?

Key datasetsIMF International Financial

Statistics

1948 - ongoing; country level

data, multi-nation

Market prices of food (wheat, rice, fish, meat, cooking oil, etc.)Exports of foodImports of food

World Bank World

Development Indicators

1960 - ongoing; country level

data, multi-nation

FoodNutritionFood production indexAgricultureFood deficit

Discover all studies related to food

IMF International Financial Statistics

Extra virgin olive oil, ex-tanker price U.K., US$ per metric ton

Food theme pages

https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/get‐data/themes/food 

Searching for data on food

http://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk

Live demo

• Food theme pages

https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/themes/food

Access conditions

Data Type Access conditions

Open accessSmall number of teaching datasets

Open access 

End User LicenceMost research datasets

Requires registration and user name and passwordUK academics and students login using their institutional username and password

Special LicenceMost survey microdata with lower level geography

Restricted to ‘Approved Researchers’ under the Statistics and Registration Act

Secure access Restricted to ‘Approved Researchers’ and access limited through a physical or virtual environment 

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Using the NDNS for a mixed methods study of food, families and work

Rebecca O’ConnellSenior Research OfficerThomas Coram Research Unit, UCL IOErebecca.oconnell@ucl.ac.uk

1

Background• National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS)

– Rolling programme from 2008 (cross sectional, representative sample of 1000 people (1.5yrs+) per year

• Food Standards Agency + ESRC strategic partnership– “Exploring and explaining UK dietary decisions in 21st

century”– Inclusion of re-contact q 2009 = opportunity to derive

a qualitative sample on basis of known dietary indicators

Background • Public policy concern with the quality of children’s diets and

childhood obesity• Rising maternal and dual parental employment; combined

hours of working parents in UK among highest in Europe• Analysis of MCS (2008/2009) found a relationship between

maternal employment and children’s overweight status and eating behaviours

• Aims of the study were to: • examine whether these associations borne out in NDNS• explain patterns found (or not found) in the quantitative data by

exploring how food and eating fit into the working lives of families and

• examine how these patterns change (or do not change) over time.

Research Questions• How do the demands of parents’ paid work shape and influence

family food practices? • What is the gender division of foodwork in dual earner families

and how do parents account for it? • When do working families eat together and what affects this? • How do children negotiate food and eating with their parents? • What do children of working parents eat at home, childcare and

school and how do parents manage children’s diets across settings?• How do changes in the eating habits of children and families relate

to interventions in and the shifting contexts of family life?

Research strategy • Secondary analysis of NDNS and other surveys – (W1) HSE,

ALSPAC (W2) US, MCS

• Qualitative sample (N=47) of children (2-10 yrs) and employed parents purposively drawn from NDNS

• 36 families followed up at W2 (2 year gap)

• Interviews with parents (usually mothers) and range of methods with children

• Qual analysis consolidated at case and thematic levels; quant and qual analyses combined where appropriate

Purposive sampling from NDNS

High Income Low Income

Healthier Diet 12 households (one child aged 1.5-10)

12 households (one child aged 1.5-10)

Less Healthy Diet 12 households (one child aged 1.5-10)

12 households (one child aged 1.5-10)

Mostly WB dual parent families; skewed towards higher end income range; two thirds couples ‘traditional 1.5 earner model’, one third ‘dual earner’

Dietary feedback:• Fat intake as a % of total

energy consumed.• Saturated fat as % total energy• NMES as % total energy• NSP intake g/day• Vitamin C intake mg/day• Folate intake μg/day• Calcium intake mg/day• Iron intake mg/day• Kcal /day

Dietary data• 3 or 4 day unweighed diet

diaries• Include where, when and with

whom food and drink consumed (‘contextual data)

Nutritional ‘scoring’ system

Food/Nutrient

Measure

1-3 yrs.

Guide or RNI 4-6

Guide or RNI 7-10

Mean intake males 4-18 NDNS

Mean intake females 4-18 NDNS

Component Score

Example 1

Ex. 1 score

Example 2

Ex. 2 score

Example 3

Ex. 3 score

age 2 age 5 age 8Fat %/Kcal 33 33 33 35.4 35.9 5 35.4 4.7 32 5.0 36 4.6Sat Fat %/Kcal 10 10 10 14.2 14.3 5 14.2 3.5 9.5 5.0 15 3.3NMES %/Kcal 10 10 10 16.7 16.4 10 16.7 6.0 11 9.1 20 5.0Fibre g/d 6 9 12 11.2 9.7 5 4 3.3 13 5.0 5 2.1Vit. C mg/d 30 30 30 75.2 71.2 5 35 5.0 70 5.0 30 5.0Folate ug/d 70 100 150 240 194 5 50 3.6 200 5.0 60 2.0Calcium mg/d 350 450 550 819 710 5 300 4.3 600 5.0 400 3.6Iron mg/d 6.9 6.1 8.7 9 7.9 5 5 3.6 7 5.0 8 4.6

Total Score 45 34.0 44.1 30.2% 76% 98% 67%

Simon, A., O’Connell, R., Stephen, A. (2012). Designing a nutritional scoring system for assessing diet quality for children aged 10 years and under in the UKhttp://www.pbs.plym.ac.uk/mi/pdf/03-08-2012/2012%20SIMON%203%20Aug.pdf

*P=0.001Reference categories: Maternal employment = not working; Siblings=none; Child Sex=girl; Maternal ethnic group=non-white; Maternal age=31 years and over; Qualifications=degree level; Social Class=I; Family income=Q5; Partner present=no.

Direct measure of portions of fruit and vegetables

consumed (n=359)

Nutritional score (n=359)

Mother employed .056 -.005

Child gender -.069 .106

Mother's ethnic group -.032 -.032

Sibling .026 -.024

Maternal age:26-30 .046 .032

21-25 -.107 -.075

20 or under -.154 -.059

Maternal social class:II .121 .023

IIINM .012 -.069

IIIM -.086 -.052

IV -.129 -.265*

V -.138 -.123

Family weekly income (£)300-499 -.057 .057

200-299 -.068 .012

100-199 -.096 .115

<100 .033 .076

Partner not present .022 -.020

Associations between direct measure of F&V consumption and nutrition score, maternal employment and other socio-economic characteristics for children aged 18 months–10 years (NDNS 2009/10)

RQ: How does parental employment influence and shape family food practices, in particular the diets of children aged 1.5 to 10 years?

NDNS: maternal employment and nutrition score

• 65% of NDNS mothers with children aged 18 months to 10 years in paid employment in 2009/10

• Maternal employment not related to ‘Nutritional score’ (-.005, p=0.933) or children’s consumption of portions of fruit and vegetables (.056, p=0.377).

• Children of mothers who were not employed had a very similar average nutritional score (mean=54.24; std. deviation=17.41) to children of mothers who were in employment (mean=55.84; std. deviation=15.86).

• Contrasts with link between children's diet and maternal employment in MCS (Hawkins et al., 2009) – but this confined to families where mothers worked full time.

• If hours of work had been included we might have found a similar relationship to that reported in the MCS

• However an advantage is that NDNS includes foods eaten outside the home and scores may reflect provision of healthy foods in school and childcare

• An important study impact is that mothers working hours and education have been added to the annual survey from 2015

Families and mealsQualitative Research• W1: When do working families eat together? • W2: How do patterns of eating together change over time?

Brannen, J., O’Connell, R. and Mooney, A. (2013) Families, meals and synchronicity: Eating together in British dual earner families with younger children. Community, Work and Family. 16 (4) 417- 434.

Quantitative Research• Is frequency of family meals for children associated with

– Socio-demographic factors such as child age, socioeconomic status and maternal employment

– Nutrition score’ for overall diet

NDNS: ‘contextual' data

NDNS: ‘contextual' data• Food and time based definition of a meal:

– Took ‘evening’ as time slot

– Summarised food into ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ types (Macdiarmid et al. 2009) -meals defined as including at least one core food

• Compared those eating with parents/ carers versus others

Macdiarmid J, Loe J, Craig LC, Masson LF, Holmes B, McNeill G. Meal and snacking patterns of school-aged children in Scotland. Eur J Clin Nutr 2009; 63: 1,297-1,304.

Families and Meals - NDNS• Children who had more frequent family meals on average had

higher nutrition scores• Child age was significantly related to family meals (younger children

more likely to eat ‘family meals’) • Mothers in paid employment were very slightly less likely to eat

family meals with their children, but the difference was very small and not significant after accounting for other demographic variables

• We might have found a difference if we had hours of employment (see MCS and US)

• However qualitative analysis found that synchronicity in schedules explained patterns of eating together better than mothers’ working hours; also confirmed fewer meals as children older – extra curricular activities and F hours

Families and mealsDataset Findings

National Diet and Nutrition Survey

(N=1,210)

‘Contextual data’

Frequency of ‘family meals’ not related to maternal employment. However, for all age groups ‘family meals’ were related to ‘nutrition score’ – children who usually eat ‘family meals’ have higher nutrition scores overall than children who do not.

Millennium Cohort Study

(N=14,738 at age 5; 13,781 at age 7)

Who usually eats the evening meal with [^Cohort child's name] on weekdays?

At both ages, over 80% of children usually ate their evening meal with parents. A very slight reduction in eating meals with parents if the mother was in paid employment.

Understanding Society

(N=5,592)

In the past 7 days, how many times have you eaten an evening meal together with your child/children and other family members who live with you?

Employed mothers (and fathers) are less likely than non-employed mothers to eat with children most days of the week. Those who work longer hours eat fewer evening meals with their child/ren. Number and age of children is significant: frequency of family meals decreases as age of child increases and decreases as number of children increases.

Reflections:NDNS and data linkageOpportunities• Basis for deriving a qualitative sample on basis of known diets• Opportunity to develop a unique index of diet quality ‘nutritional score’• Contextual data useful alternative/supplement to survey response to direct questionsChallenges• ‘Missing’ sociodemographic data – now improved• Time lag for processed dietary data – partic. important re. children’s diet intake• Question of validity at individual level • Socio-demographic data – now improved Mixing methods and meshing data• Quantitative and qualitative constituent parts of the study address differently framed

questions• In practice analyses sometimes corroborated each other, in other instances they

complemented one another, while in others they were dissonant

Brannen, J. & O'Connell, R. (2015). Data Analysis I: overview of data analysis strategies. In Sharlene Hesse-Biber and Burke Johnson (eds). Oxford Handbook of Mixed and Multimethod Research. Oxford University Press.

Some useful links• NDNS: https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/series/?sn=2000033

• Our qualitative data (interviews with parents and children, children’s drawings): https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/

• FSA Food and YOU Survey: https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=7576#related

• Families and Food in Hard Times: www.foodinhardtimes.org

• Families Food and Work: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/food-families-and-work-9780857855084/

Roberts, C., Lubian, K., McManus, S., Draper, A., O’Connell, R. and Eaton, E. (2016). Food and You Waves 1-3 Secondary Analysis – Paper 4: Food affordability and safety. Food Standards Agency. Available at: https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/fs409014-paper4.pdf

Acknowledgements• The children, young people and families who generously gave their valuable time to participate in

the study and granted us permission to reproduce their photographs and drawings

• The funders: Economic and Social Research Council with a) The Food Standards Agency (RES-190–25-0010) and b) The Department of Health (ES/ J012556/1)

• Dr Jane Barrett and Danielle DeFeo (DH) and Helen Atkinson (FSA)

• The research team based at the Thomas Coram Research unit, UCL Institute of Education: Professor Julia Brannen (co-investigator), Charlie Owen, Antonia Simon, Katie Hollingworth (Phase 2), Abigail Knight, Ann Mooney (Phase 1). Penny Mellor provided administrative support. Professors Alison Stephen and Carol Devine provided consultancy on diet data.

• Colleagues at MRC HNR and NatCen Social Research for their help in drawing a qualitative sample from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey and the data owners

• The project Advisory Group