The Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC):Susanne Petersen1, Morten Arendt Rasmussen2

Thorhallur Ingi Halldorsson3

Sjurdur Frodi Olsen1

The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa):Anne Lise Brantsæter4

Margaretha Haugen4

Helle Margrete Meltzer4

1 Centre for Fetal Programming, Copenhagen, Denmark2 Department of Food Science/Quality and Technology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Copenhagen, Denmark3 Unit for Nutrition Research, landspitali-University Hospital & Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition,

University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland4 The Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway5 National Institute of Consumer Research (SIFO), Oslo, NorwaySupported by the Danish Fund for Organic Agriculture and the Research Council of Norway

“Characterization of organic food consumers in two

large pregnancy cohorts: Socio-demographic and lifestyle correlates of organic food consumption”

Hanne Torjusen4,5 in collaboration with:

Materials and methods

Data: 60 773 pregnant women in DNBC (1998-2003) and 64 873 in Moba (2002-2008) having answered:

• A general health questionnaire at week 15 (MoBa); or week 12 and 30 (DNBC)

• A Food frequency questionnaire at week 18-22 (MoBa) / mid-

pregnancy (≈ week 25) (DNBC)

• Similar questions regarding socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics

• Identical questions about the consumption of organic food in sixfood groups, used for calculating a Sum Index

Scoring/Sum Index

Have you eaten organic foods since you became pregnant?

Organic food Rarely/never Sometimes Often Mostly

1. Milk 1 2 3 4

2. Bread 1 2 3 4

3. Eggs 1 2 3 4

4. Vegetables 1 2 3 4

5. Fruit 1 2 3 4

6. Meat 1 2 3 4

Range: 6 - 24

Use of organic food in DNBC and MoBa

1,9%7,5%38,4%52,2%

1,2334,86524,91133,864MoBa

6,8%37,1%37,1%11,8%

4,15422,566 26,8987,155 DNBC

FrequentSum index

19-24

Moderate

Sum index13-18

Rare

Sum index

7-12

Non

Sum index

1-6

Four groups based on frequency of organic food in the diet

Analysis

Questions:

1. Is the frequent consumption of organic food during pregnancy associated with similar socio-demographic- and lifestyle characteristics in Denmark and Norway?

2. Are lifestyle characteristics in line with health recommendations?

• Comparison between ’non-users’ and ’frequent users’ within the two cohorts, logistic regression, odds ratio

• Principal Component Analysis

Results

• Characteristics of frequent users of organic food in both countries:– vegetarian diet; engagement in physical activity; lower BMI;

and higher total energy intake

• Denmark only:– urban living area; higher education; higher age; occasional

smoking

• Norway only:– lower age– students, lower levels of education and unemployed

(unadjusted analysis)

Distribution of age among frequent users of organic food in Denmark and Norway

Distribution of social groups among frequent users of

organic food in Denmark and Norway

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Hig

h

Medi

um

Skill

ed

Studen

tU

nskill

edU

nemplo

yed

Norway

Denmark

Distribution of vegetarian diet among frequent users of

organic food in Denmark and Norway

0

20

40

60

80

100

Eating meat Vegetarian

Norway

Denmark

Distribution of cigarette smoking among frequent users

of organic food in Denmark and Norway

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Nonsmoker occasional daily

Norway

Denmark

Distribution of Body Mass Index categories among

frequent users of organic food in Denmark and Norway

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

<18,5 18,5-25 25-30 30-35 >35

Norway

Denmark

Demographic

Health status

Lifestyle

-1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2-1.5

-1

-0.5

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

vegetarian

suppl

cohab

alcoholsmoking0

smoking1

smoking2

graduatecollege

skilled

student

unskilled unemployed

age1

age2

age3

age4

age5

age6

bmi1

bmi2bmi3

bmi4bmi5

parity0

parity1

parity2

exercise0

exercise1

exercise2

exercise3

urban3urban2

urban1

urban0

PC

2 (

6.7

3%

)

PC 1 (8.44%)

Org-0

Org-3Org-3

Org-0

DK

NO

Denmark Norway

Conclusions I

• There is no ’one Scandivavian pattern of organic foodconsumption’ among pregnant women: Nationalitywas the primary source of variation in the joint, multivatiate analysis

– Practices (such as eating organic food) take place within a broader context (e.g. food culture; organic food market; perceptions of trust and responsibility). Important to considerin public communication

– Despite the differences: a trend towards more similaritieswith higher organic consumption

Conclusions II

• Associations between socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics and consumption of organicfood are complex and may not be reduced to onesingle ’healthy lifestyle’ orientation

– Health behaviour is complex: ’Healthy practices’ in one area are not necessarily accompanied by ’healthy practices’ in other areas

– Organic food is not only about health: there is a broad range of consumer characteristics and types of motivationassociated with the use of organic food

For more results on dietary correlates of organic consumption, please see

Poster no. II-4

• Similar patterns between Danish and Norwegian frequent users of organic food with regard to diet; a tendency towards healthier

diet with more organic food.