Urban-rural differences in dietary habits and influences among Australian adolescents

Junior high school students (2,082) in Tasmania, Australia, were surveyed using a printed questionnaire. For 22 commonly-used foods collectively, MANOVA indicated that rural students differed significantly from urban students in their consumption frequency for the foods, their perception of the usage of the foods by their parents and their friends, their liking for the foods and their perceptions of those foods' healthfulness. Regression analyses for the 22 foods separately indicated that liking for a food and parental usage of it were generally significantly linked to the respondent's frequency of using it; there were few urban-rural differences in this pattern. A food's healthfulness (as perceived by the respondent) and friends' usage of it were significantly linked to personal usage frequency only for a minority of foods; the regression analyses suggested that rural students gave less weight than urban students to health considerations and to perceived peer behavior in their food choices. These results suggest differences in food cognition between urban and rural adolescents.