Meal preferences and associations with dietary behaviours and cardiometabolic health in young adults: a discrete choice experiment

This study explored meal preferences in young adults and moderation by dietary behaviours and cardiometabolic health. Between April and November 2022, Australian young adults (18-30 years) were invited to complete an online discrete choice experiment (DCE) to understand meal preferences and to provide an 8-item cardiometabolic profile analysis. Participants were presented with 12 choice sets reflecting a typical weekday meal and were asked to choose between four meal options, each with five meal attributes (preparation time, cost, taste, familiarity, nutrition content). Conditional logit models were used to determine meal preferences and associations with diet quality, hunger, appetite disinhibition and cardiometabolic health. A total of 229 adults (49% female, mean age 23.9 [SD 3.9] years) completed the DCE and provided cardiometabolic data. Higher nutrition content was the most important influence on meal choice (β = 2.26, 95% CI: 1.97, 2.56), followed by better taste (β = 2.05; 95% CI: 1.80, 2.29), higher quality (β = 0.96; 95% CI: 0.79, 1.13), lower cost (β = -0.85; 95% CI: 1.07, -0.64), and lower preparation time (β = -0.75; 95% CI: 0.91, -0.59). Higher nutrition content was more important with higher diet quality and less important with increasing appetite disinhibition, VLDL-cholesterol, insulin, hsCRP and triglycerides levels; higher meal quality was more important with higher diet quality and less important with increasing appetite disinhibition; better taste was less important with increasing total and LDL cholesterol; lower cost was more important with increasing VLDL-cholesterol, insulin and triglycerides; and lower preparation time was more important with increasing VLDL-cholesterol and triglycerides. Meal preferences in young adulthood vary according to dietary behaviours and cardiometabolic profile. Targeted interventions and policies that address the underlying reasons for unhealthy behaviours in young adults and differ by cardiometabolic risk groups are needed.