Fast food consumption is associated with higher education in women, but not men, among older adults in urban safety-net clinics: A cross-sectional survey

Fast food consumption is linked to poor health, yet many older adults regularly consume fast food. Understanding factors contributing to fast food consumption is useful in the development of targeted interventions. The aim of this study was to characterize how fast food consumption relates to socio-demographic characteristics in a low-income sample of older adults. This study used cross-sectional survey data of 50 to79-year-olds (N-236) in urban safety-net clinics in 2010 in Kansas City, KS. Self-reported frequency of fast food consumption was modeled using ordinal logistic regression with socio-demographics as predictor variables. Participants were 56.8 ± 6.0 (mean ± SD) years old, 64% female, 45% non-Hispanic African American, and 26% Hispanic. Thirty-nine percent denied eating fast food in the past week, 36% ate once, and 25% ate fast food at least twice. Age was negatively correlated with fast food intake (r = −0.20, P = 0.003). After adjusting for age, race-ethnicity, employment, and marital status, the association between education and fast food consumption differed by sex (P(interaction) = 0.017). Among women, higher education was associated with greater fast food intake (Spearman's correlation; r = 0.28, P = 0.0005); the association was not significant in men (r = −0.14, P = 0.21). In this diverse, low-income population, high educational attainment (college graduate or higher) related to greater fast food intake among women but not men. Exploration of the factors contributing to this difference could inform interventions to curb fast food consumption or encourage healthy fast food choices among low-income, older adults.