Frequency of Food Intakes and Living Conditions of Women in a Suburban Rural Area

In order to relate dietary consumption expressed as frequencies of food-group consumption, to distance from the residence to food shops, to age, to occupation and to composition of family, data on the 18 food groups elicited in July or August 1979 by interview from 254 women living in a suburban rural area, Nakai-machi, Kanagawa Prefecture were analyzed, mainly by the technique of Hayaishi's quantification II. The results were as follows. (1) There existed specifiable dietary patterns, as seen in correlation coefficient matrices of foodgroup consumption frequencies. (2) Distance from the residence to food shops had little association with frequency of intake of rice or pickles. As to fish and meat, the distance and the frequency of intake seemed to be associated, though it was not such a simple one as the frequency of intake decreased with the increased distance. (3) Frequency of intake of rice or bread had most closely related to type of occupation and second most closely to age. (4) Frequency of intake of miso, pickles, fish or meat had closely related to age. Frequency of miso or pickles intake had association with type of occupation. (5) Presence of a family member younger than 20 years had little association with frequency of intake of any of above-mentioned food groups. (6) Thus, the dietary pattern with high frequency of rice, miso and pickles intakes and low of bread intake was more prevalent in those people who were aged and engaged in agriculture, while the dietary pattern with high frequency of bread intake and low frequency of rice, miso and pickles intake was more popular in those people who were young or engaged in such occupations as professional or clerical ones.