Sociodemographic, lifestyle and insurance factors associated with household expenditure on sugary foods: A pooled cross-sectional analysis

Objective: To examine sociodemographic, lifestyle and health insurance factors associated with consumption expenditure on sugary foods among households of different income groups in Malaysia. Design: A pooled cross-sectional analysis of data from the Malaysian Household Expenditure Survey was carried out. A seemingly unrelated regression was used to examine factors affecting household expenditure on three types of sugary foods, i.e., sugar, confectionery and sugar preserved foods. The regression was stratified by in-come groups. Setting: Malaysia. Participants: A nationally representative sample of 29,389 households. Results: Age, education level, ethnicity, gender, marital status and employment status of household heads, household location, as well as alcohol spending were associated with expenditure on sugary foods among low-income households. In the middle-income group, there were relationships between household expenditure on sugary foods and tobacco use, and health insurance ownership. The factors that predicted expenditure on sugary foods among high-income households included education, ethnicity, marital status, employment status, house-hold location, and health insurance. There were temporal variations in household expenditure on sugary foods in all income groups. Conclusions: Sociodemographic, lifestyle and health insurance factors play an important role in expenditure on sugary foods among households of different income groups.