Unhealthy food consumption among women at reproductive age in Cambodia: Analysis of Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey 2021–2022

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are significant global health issues; we examined the prevalence of unhealthy food consumption and used logistic regression to analyze its association with socio-demographic characteristics using data from the 2021-2022 Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey (CDHS), which included 19,496 women aged 15–49. Overall, 33.0% (95%CI: 31.9–34.2) of women consumed unhealthy foods within 24 hours, 21.1% (95%CI: 20.1–22.1) consumed sweet foods, 18.2% (95%CI: 17.4–19.1) consumed salty foods, 58.3% (95%CI: 57.1–59.5) consumed sweet beverages, and 16.3% (95%CI: 15.3–17.3) consumed alcohol in the last month. Only 1.5% (95%CI: 1.3–1.7) of women smoked cigarettes. Factors associated with increased odds of consuming unhealthy food included aged 15–19 years (AOR = 1.7; 95% CI: 1.5–2.1), 20–29 years (AOR = 1.3; 95% CI: 1.1–1.5), and 30–39 years (AOR = 1.3; 95% CI: 1.2–1.5), higher education (AOR = 1.6; 95% CI: 1.3–2.0), and wealthier households (AOR = 1.1; 95% CI: 0.9–1.2), residing in capital city (AOR = 2.4; 95% CI: 1.9–3.1). The study found a high prevalence of unhealthy food consumption among Cambodian women. Younger age, higher education, wealthier households, and residing in the capital city were associated with consuming unhealthy food. Public health interventions should prioritize mitigating the risk of NCDs among Cambodian women by promoting healthier lifestyles.