Discover new insights on ultra-processed food, dieting and disordered eating, and food insecurity and poverty, with the latest update to CLOSER’s cross-study guide on dietary data.
CLOSER’s cross-study guide on dietary data provides detailed information collected about diet across eight UK longitudinal population studies (LPS) to help researchers identify data that captures insights into diet and explore the relevant topic areas covered by LPS data.
New information on dietary data
Breaking down the various ways to measure diet, the updated guide includes key findings from research using the diet data and summarises the UK political and societal context of diet and dietary research over the past 80 years.
With the latest update, the guide provides details of dietary data from the most recent data collections across the eight studies (including COVID-19 focused surveys), the diet questions or measurement tools that have been used in each study, the year in which they were used, and who responded (e.g. age and type of respondent). Response statistics for each time point also give an indication of the sample size achieved.
The updated guide also summarises data across the studies on new topics related to diet:
- Ultra-processed food (UPF) and how measures of UPF have been derived from LPS diet data.
- Eating behaviours, including behaviours and thoughts around dieting and disordered eating patterns.
- Food insecurity and food poverty, including food bank usage and worries about affording and obtaining food.
Insights for policymakers
Additionally, the inclusion of the latest insights into the available longitudinal population-level data on policy-relevant dietary topics enables researchers, policymakers and public health professionals to:
- Explore the latest data on food consumption, eating behaviours and food insecurity.
- Identify where longitudinal data and repeated measurements can enable exploration of trends and changes in diet over time.
- Identify data capturing the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on diet patterns and habits.
Explore the online guide to dietary data in longitudinal population studies.
About CLOSER’s cross-study guides
Our cross-study data guides help researchers explore and compare the available measures on different research themes both within and across multiple longitudinal population studies. Other cross-study guides in the series:
Find out more in our Comparing apples and oranges? Enabling cross-study research with CLOSER’s data guides blog.
Related links:
Our Changing Society: new overweight and obesity contextual data.
Notes to Editors
The latest release provides updates on the following seven CLOSER partner studies:
- 1946 National Survey for Health and Development (NSHD): COVID-19 sweeps (age 74, 2020-2021)
- 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS): Sweep 10 (age 62, 2020); COVID-19 sweeps (age 62, 2020-2021)
- 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70): COVID-19 sweeps (age 50, 2020-2021); Sweep 11 (age 51, 2021)
- Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS): Wave 11 (2019-2021); Wave 12 (2020-2022), COVID & waves 1-9 (2020-2021)
- The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC): age 14 (2005-2007); age 16 (2007-2009); age 17 (2020); age 18 (2010-2011); age 23 (2015-2016); age 24 (2016-2017); age 25 (2017-2018); age 27 (COVID, 2020-2021); age 28 (2020-2021); age 29 (2021-2022); age 30 (2022-2023); age 31 (2023); age 32 (2023)
- Southampton Women’s Survey (SWS): COVID survey (2021)
- Millennium Cohort Study (MCS): Sweep 7 (age 17, 2018); COVID-19 sweeps (age 20, 2020-2021)
The guide now also covers three new topic areas from the following studies:
- Ultra-processed foods: ALSPAC on children aged 7, 10 and 13 years, sections 9.3 and 9.5.
- Dieting and disordered eating: ALSPAC and MCS for teenagers and their mothers/carers.
- Food insecurity and food poverty: Birth cohorts, UKHLS, ALSPAC.