Who’s cooking? Analysis of food preparation time in the 2003 ATUS

1. Abstract Background Simplified analytic model Individual: Gender Age Race-ethnicity Education Outcome: Time in food prep Family: Child present HH size Partner present HH income Employment: Status (yes/no) Hours Results - Table 2: Odds of spending any vs no time in daily food prep Conclusions Methods Implications Who’s cooking? Analysis of food preparation time in the 2003 ATUS Jennifer Jabs, MS, RD and Carol M. Devine, PhD, RD Table1: Characteristics of subjects Table 3: Of those reporting any time in food prep: Ln(min/day) Objective: To examine how individual, family, and employment characteristics are associated with time spent in daily food prep Design & subjects: Logistic & linear regression analysis of 2003 ATUS data of men & women 21-64 years age (n=13,211) Results: 65% women & 36% men reported food prep time. Women had greater odds of any time in food prep than men. Of those reporting any food prep time (all other variables constant) time spent in daily food prep: women=28.2min/d, men=20.3min/d. Having a partner increased women‘s odds and decreased men's odds of any time in food prep. Conclusions: Daily food prep time differed by parental & partner status, ethnicity, age, and other socio-demographic characteristics. Food prep was undertaken more by women than men when controlling for individual, family, and employment characteristics. • ↑ household employment hours • ↑ feelings of time pressure • ↓ time spent in food preparation • ↑ eating foods prepared away from home Daily time in food preparation • Descriptive statistics & bivariate analysis of variables • Variables grouped for categorical comparisons • Dropped those with unknown income • Limited to those 21-62 yr age, not full-time students (n=13,211) • Data examined for normality • 2 analysis performed: • none vs. any food prep: Logistic regression • for any time in food prep: Ln( daily min. in food prep): Linear regression • Included variables in analytic model, 2- & 3-way interactions • Interacted all variables with gender; rejected hypothesis of equality of coefficients across gender; subsequent models run by gender • Influence diagnostics: removal of most influential cases made little difference in results, all kept for analysis • Many reported no time in food prep (35% women, 64% men) • Gendered nature of food prep: Women more likely to do any & more food prep than men • Food prep time differed by parental & marital status, ethnicity, age, and other socio-demographic characteristics • Role differences • Women with partners have increased odds & men decreased odds of any time in food prep • Having children at home increase time reported in food prep by men & women • Smaller female:male differences among those reporting any daily food prep time • Day of week influences doing any (less likely on weekends) & time spent in food prep (longer time on weekends) • The social framework in which food prep is performed has implications for food assistance policy • Limited time spent in food prep has nutritional & health implications. • If goal to understand food prep time then need to measure: food prep as a secondary activity & all household members’ time use in food prep Acknowledgements: John Cawley, Carole Bisogni, Elaine Wethington, Cornell University Office of Statistical Consulting, NIH: 5T32 DK007 158