Domestic Cooking, BMI, and Factors Determining Women's Involvement – TDHS- 2013 Study Findings

• Published in: Annals of nutrition and metabolism 2020-01, Vol.76, p.98
• Main Authors: Kalyoncu, Z Begum, Merdol, Turkan, Yildirim, Gonca, Cetiner, Ozlem, Gunesliol, Bartu Eren, Dag, Ayhan, Adali, Tugba
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Bivariate analysis; Body weight; Categories; Children; Complexity; Conflicts of interest; Context; Cooking; Data analysis; Data collection; Demographics; Demography; Developed countries; Developing countries; Diet; Education; Energy intake; Ethical standards; Evaluation; Fertility; Funding; Guidelines; Income; Informed consent; LDCs; Nutrition; Obesity; Overweight; Parity; Physical activity; Polls & surveys; Population studies; Public health; Regression analysis; Reproductive health; Rural areas; Smoking; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomics; Women
• ISSN: 0250-6807; 1421-9697
• DOI: 10.1159/000505528

Background/Aims: Cooking and home food preparation have increasingly been considered as a public health opportunity in the face of augmented rates of overweight and obesity in the developed, high-income countries [1]. "Domestic cooking", used interchangeably with "home cooking", refers to actions required for preparing hot or cold foods at home, including combining, mixing and often heating ingredients [2], which is typically associated with women despite the shifting developed country demographics [3]. Domestic cooking was shown to be positively associated with higher diet quality and positive health outcomes among adults in certain studies [4, 3]; whereas other ones reported either no association or suggest that longer meal preparation time to be associated with higher energy intake and obesity among women [5, 6]. Since domestic cooking's complexity that is attributable to geographical and demographical variations between studies affects diet and health inconsistently, more research is needed to assess the effect of domestic cooking on women's BMI [7, 8]. Also, the complex interactions between determinants and health-related outcomes of domestic cooking is also relatively understudied due to methodological challenges [2]. Furthermore, determinants of domestic cooking have been understudied for the context of developing countries as well. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of domestic cooking on women's BMI and then elucidate the factors that determine women's involvement in domestic cooking for the context of Turkey. Methods: Study Design and Data Source The data source for the present study came from publicly available Turkey Demographic and Health Survey 2013 (TDHS-2013) dataset. TDHS-2013 was conducted by Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies with the contributions of Turkish Ministries of Development and Health [9]. TDHS-2013 was a nationally representative, cross-sectional household survey, in which the respondents are selected from urban and rural areas of major five regions of the country through weighted, multi-stage, stratified cluster sampling. Information was collected from women of reproductive age (15-49 years) via individual face-to-face questionnaires. Data on various sociodemographic and socio-economic indicators, fertility, maternal and child heath, reproductive health, and women's status along with the anthropometric measures of women and children were collected. Further details of the study desig