Flexible Consumer Behavior Survey
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Overview
Addressing the growing need for improved collection of food consumption data, ERS established the Consumer Data and Information Program (CDIP) (see The Consumer Data and Information Program: Sowing The Seeds of Research). Since the inception of CDIP in 2005, investments in the program have enabled the collection of data indicating how consumer behavior and market dynamics shape diet quality and health outcomes. Under the CDIP initiative, ERS has partnered with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) to gather and track information on changing food habits, attitudes, and dietary behaviors of U.S. consumers through a consumer behavior module in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
NHANES collects a variety of health data on the U.S. population through household interviews and medical examinations conducted in-person at mobile examination centers. NHANES uses 24-hour dietary recalls to obtain information about what people eat, making it possible to link eating habits to such health outcomes as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.
Flexible Consumer Behavior Survey
The ERS-sponsored module--the Flexible Consumer Behavior Survey (FCBS)--was added to the 2007-08 NHANES. Data from the 2007-08 FCBS module are forthcoming. A second round of FCBS is currently being fielded in the 2009-10 NHANES. The FCBS modules will help shed light on diet-health connections, especially in relation to nutrition assistance and education programs, food security monitoring, and obesity prevention.
The FCBS module consists of two components:
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A core household interview component. The core questions consist of economic variables (such as family food expenditures, monthly income, and food and nutrition assistance program participation), dietary and behavioral indicators (such as self-assessed diet quality, types of foods available in the home, and frequency of eating out), and time spent shopping and cooking meals at home. The core component collects data on a continuous basis.
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A followup telephone interview component. The followup component is flexible by design, incorporating topical and policy-oriented questions that will be fielded every 2 to 4 years and then replaced with new questions. The 2007-08 telephone followup component includes questions on food label use, factors influencing grocery shopping, reasons for dining out, use of nutrition information in restaurants, and frequency of organic food purchases.
For more information about NHANES, visit: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes.htm
Results from 2005-06 NHANES
A subset of FCBS questions was included in the Diet Behavior and Nutrition module of the 2005-06 NHANES, and these data have been released for public use on the NCHS website. ERS analyses of the data provide insight into consumer assessment of diet quality and awareness of Federal nutrition information programs. See results for:
Self-assessed Diet Quality
The 2005-06 NHANES Diet Behavior and Nutrition module included the question, "How healthy is your overall diet?" This question is designed to evaluate how Americans assess their own diets, which, in turn, can be linked to food intake data as well as other health and behavioral indicators.
16x16 - Excel View responses to the question by demographic characteristics in Excel format.
Federal Nutritional Information Program Awareness
Awareness of Federal nutrition information programs is crucial for monitoring Americans' understanding of what constitutes a healthy diet. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the accompanying nutrition education tool Food Guide Pyramid ( MyPlate) are mainstays in Federal nutrition outreach programs.
Have you heard of The Dietary Guidelines for Americans? Food Guide Pyramid?
chart data
16x16 - Excel View responses to the question by demographic characteristics in Excel format.
Food Away From Home Frequency
The frequency of meals purchased from fast food and full-service restaurants (food away from home) can be used as an indicator of the quality of the American diet. New to the NHANES, this question allows a better understanding of the number of meals Americans are consuming away from their homes.
How many meals per week do you get that were not prepared at home?
chart data
16x16 - Excel View responses to the question by demographic characteristics in Excel format.
