Adherence to the Mediterranean diet among employees in South West England: formative research to inform a web-based, work-place nutrition intervention

Objective
The aim of this study is to assess internet usage patterns and adherence to the Mediterranean diet among employees in South West England, UK and their differences by personal characteristics.

Method
A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2014 among 590 adults (428 women, 162 men, mean age 43.8 years), employees of four work-place settings. Mediterranean diet adherence was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Adherence differences were assessed by gender, marital status, education, number of children and food shopping and preparation responsibility.

Results
On average, participants reported moderate adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Higher adherence was reported for alcohol, vegetables, cereals and fruit. Few participants achieved high adherence to the Mediterranean diet recommendations for legumes (5.3%), fish (3.2%), dairy products (4.8%), red meat (11.9%), poultry (11.1%) and olive oil (18.2%). A higher Mediterranean diet score was reported among participants who were married/cohabiting, those with higher education attainment and shared responsibility for food preparation.

Conclusion
Improvement in the consumption of several Mediterranean diet components is needed to increase adherence in this sample of adults. The findings have the potential to inform the development of a web-based intervention that will focus on these foods to promote the Mediterranean diet in work-place settings in South West England.