Food Consumption Associated with Health Status and Lifestyle Factors in the Adult Italian Regional Population: An Analysis Proposal for Official Statistics Data

Prior research has shown a link between food and well-being, but also between food consumption and lifestyle or between a series of chronic diseases. So far lifestyle or well-being has been studied mainly as a motivational antecedent of food consumption, while health conditions as a consequence. This study simultaneously analyses the relationships among indicators of food consumption, subjective well-being, food-related lifestyle, and health conditions of a nationally representative sample of adult people. In this paper, we propose to stratify the regional population into age classes before calculating the chosen indicators, so as to better highlight relevant patterns in food habits and decouple the effect of population age from other drivers. Through the exploratory factor analysis on the consumption of food products and food-related lifestyle indicators, it was possible to identify different eating styles and relate them both to indicators of well-being—physical, social, economic, and subjective—and to lifestyle indicators. The results highlighted a clear generational and territorial division.