Exploring the dietary intake of young adult Living and Eating for Health Segments

Objective: To explore the dietary intake of young adults segmented by their knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards health and healthy eating. Design: Cross-sectional nutrient intake data from Intake24, online 24-hour recall and lifestyle and demographic data from an online questionnaire. Setting: Online delivery to Australian young adults. Participants: Australian young adults aged 18-30 years (n=47). Results: All analyses were completed using SPSS, including descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U Tests, and Spearman's Rho. The findings indicated that young adults tended to study full-time, work casually, live with other adults, and earn low incomes. Overall, young adults did not meet the recommended serves for any major food groups. Lifestyle Mavens (LM)/Health Conscious (HC) were more likely to report energy intakes within the acceptable macronutrient distribution range (AMDR) compared to Aspirational Healthy Eaters (AHE)/Balanced All Rounders (BAR), placing the latter at an increased risk of chronic disease. Compared to the AHE/BAR, LM/HC appeared to have better healthy eating knowledge (p=0.048), better meal planning, preparation and food literacy skills (p=0.042), more engagement with food-related content on social media (p=0.032), more satisfaction with the healthiness of their diet (p=0.029), and more self-regulating attitude towards their food choices (p=0.020). Conclusions: Healthy eating campaigns that provide education on how to plan, purchase and prepare healthy meals with limited time and money are needed to improve the diets of Australian young adults and prevent chronic disease.