Typology of out-of-home eaters: a description of sociodemographic, lifestyle, nutritional and environmental characteristics in the NutriNet-Santé cohort.

Background: The out-of-home (OOH) food sector holds the potential to promote healthier and more sustainable diets on a large scale given the high number of people eating OOH regularly. However, information about socioeconomic and dietary characteristics of OOH eaters is limited. This study aimed to identify a typology of OOH consumers by frequency and type of meal consumed OOH and their associated sociodemographic, lifestyle, nutritional, and environmental characteristics.

Methods: Based on a sub-sample of adults of the French NutriNet-Santé cohort who completed a food frequency questionnaire and a questionnaire on OOH consumption habits in 2014 (n = 29,140, mean age: 53.6 (SD = 14.0) years, 74.3% women), we conducted a Multiple Factor Analysis followed by a clustering procedure. AN(C)OVA models were then used to examine the associations between the identified clusters and socio-demographic, lifestyle, and diet-related characteristics (using dietary scores and environmental indicators including greenhouse gas emissions, land use and energy consumption).

Results: We identified five clusters based on their OOH consumption patterns: Weekday-only eaters (19%), Frequent weekday and weekend eaters (24%), Organic eaters (6%), Weekend and evening eaters (19%), and Home-only eaters (32%). Weekday-only eaters were younger, more likely to be professionally active and to have children at home than the other groups. Frequent weekday and weekend eaters, with the highest OOH consumption, had the lowest dietary quality and the highest diet-related environmental impacts and consisted mostly of younger women with higher socioeconomic status. Organic eaters, often living in urban areas and following specific diets such as vegan or vegetarian ones, had the best dietary quality and the lowest diet-related environmental impacts. Weekend and evening eaters and Home-only eaters had a higher proportion of retired individuals, with Weekend and evening eaters also showing a greater proportion of high-income individuals.

Conclusions: Our findings indicate a lower dietary quality and higher dietary environmental impacts among frequent OOH eaters, whereas those with higher organic consumption showed opposite trends. This study contributes to the understanding of different OOH consumer characteristics and could provide a basis for further research in the field.

Trial registration: The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03335644).