The association of mavenism and pleasure with food involvement in older adults

BACKGROUND Food involvement is concerned with the involvement people have in the preparation and consumption of food. Little is known about older people's food involvement or about the factors which may influence it. Therefore the main aim of this study was to examine food involvement and its associations among older Australians. METHODS An Internet-based nationwide survey of 1,041 people aged 55 years and over (M = 66 years, SD 6.99) was conducted in 2012. Quota sampling was used to ensure that the age, gender and state of residence of the respondents were representative of the Australian population aged over 55 years. Bell and Marshall's Food Involvement Scale was administered, along with questions pertaining to socio-demographic, social and hedonic factors. RESULTS Overall predictor variables explained 45% (p = <0.0001) of variance in food involvement. Food mavenism and pleasure motivation for food were the factors most strongly associated with food involvement (β = .36; 95% CI .46, .61; p = < 0.0001 and β = .31; 95% CI .78, 1.08; p = < 0.0001, respectively). The predictive ability of demographic factors was reasonably poor. CONCLUSIONS Food mavenism and pleasure motivation are stronger predictors of Food Involvement than demographic factors. This suggests communication and health promotion opportunities among older people.