Using food delivery apps linked to obesity risk and lower-level jobs

Could how you purchase food online be linked to your social position and likelihood of obesity? New research from the UK suggests it might be.

People who order takeaway deliveries online are more likely to be from households with lower-level jobs and to be living with obesity, according to a new study.
The UK-focused research, published in the journal BMJ Public Health, also found that high-income households were more likely to purchase groceries online than lower-income households.
The study was based on pre-pandemic data from more than 1,500 households in London and the north of England in February 2019 and sought to find out how the availability of food online has influenced social inequality and diet.
Overall, the researchers found that around 13 per cent of respondents used delivery apps for takeaway over seven days and 15 per cent of respondents ordered groceries online over four weeks. A little over three per cent used both services.
The researchers looked at both income and social grade based on occupation – which was divided into four categories ranging from managerial and professional jobs in the highest category to unskilled manual workers, state pensioners and those unemployed with benefits in the lowest one.
While online grocery purchases were associated with higher income, there was no association between these and a person’s occupation.
Meanwhile, respondents with lower social positions based on occupation had twice the odds of using takeaway delivery services than those in higher-level occupations.
Those using food delivery apps to order takeaway also had an 84 per cent higher likelihood of living with obesity, the study found.
“Dietary quality of food purchases was not measured in this study, but previous research indicates that takeaway food delivery app use is associated with lower dietary quality and that foods purchased from takeaways are more energy dense and nutrient poor,” the authors of the study wrote.
“The use of online grocery being associated with higher income is an interesting finding and may speak to a number of factors,” Professor Jason Halford, head of the psychology school at the University of Leeds and former president of the European Association for the Study of Obesity, told Euronews Health in an email.
This could include not needing to look for bargains or depend on what foods people buy online compared to those in the store.
“While the association between occupational social grade, obesity and ‘fast food’ consumption is not in itself surprising [it] is interesting to see this so clearly in the home online food deliveries,” Halford, who was not involved with the study, added.
“The lack of association with income may speak more to the types of cuisines being [ordered] and the added costs associated with delivery,” he said, pointing out, however, that this sector has flourished post-pandemic.
There were several limitations to the study including the self-reported nature of some of the data and the uneven distribution of households based on social position. The results are also mainly from urban households making it difficult to generalise them across a larger population.
While it’s difficult to determine what is driving the findings as the study is observational, it’s possible “grocery purchasing may predominantly depend on financial resources, while takeaway purchasing may be linked to culture and social group,” the authors said in a statement provided to Euronews Health.
“It’s clear that online food shopping options across the UK vary and we know that online food options differ in nutritional quality,” added Dr Alexandra Kalbus, lead author and research fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
She said they still do not know “how cost and availability may be influencing our decisions to order online in comparison to other socio-cultural influences”.
“Further research is also needed to establish if and how patterns of online food ordering may have changed since the [COVID-19] pandemic when many additional businesses moved to online models,” she said.