Table 3.

Descriptive summary of correlate studies of dietary habits

Author (Year)	Country	Area	Age, range in years and mean (SD)	Sample Size	Participants	Correlate Measure	Outcome Measure	By What Measure is the Determinant Evaluated	Main Findings
El Hamid (2011)90	Saudi Arabia	Urban	18‐21	205	Female university students	Knowledge and behaviour	Dietary habits “FV consumption”	Self‐administered survey	Students of the nutrition department consumed more vegetables than students from nonnutrition departments. Self‐efficacy and benefits were the most important factors associated with FV consumption, while the department type had no association.
AlAteeq and AlArawi (2014)18	Saudi Arabia	Urban	39.2 (8.91)	322	Clinicians (127 males and 195 females)	Sociodemographic factors “gender” and physical activity	Dietary habits	Self‐administered survey	Higher levels of physical activity were associated with better dietary habits. Better dietary habits increased with increased age and work experience. Females had better dietary habits than males. Physicians and nurses had better dietary habits than pharmacists.
Almajwal (2016)24	Saudi Arabia	Urban	18 and older	395	Non‐Saudi female nurses	Stress and work shift duty	Dietary habits	Self‐administered survey + anthropometric measurements by researcher	Results indicated that nurses with high stress and with undergraduate diplomas had less healthy eating behaviours: restrained eating (the tendency to restrict food intake in order to control body weight), emotional eating (the tendency to cope with negative emotions such as anxiety or irritability), and external eating (the extent to which external cues of food trigger eating episodes, such as the reinforcing value of the sight and smell of attractive food). Nurses working night shift duty had more restrained eating and external eating than those working the day shift. Most of the nurses working night shift duty ate more fast food and snacks and fewer vegetables than nurses who do not work on night shifts.
Al‐Gelban (2008)91	Saudi Arabia	Urban + rural	18 and older	456	Saudi male college students	Sociodemographic factors	Dietary habits	Self‐administered survey	There was no relationship between students' parental education and dietary habits.
El Hamid (2014)27	Saudi Arabia	Urban + rural	18‐28, 20.78 (1.76)	400	Female university students	Sociodemographic factors	Home breakfast skipping	Self‐administered survey	Unhealthy habits (overconsumption of junk foods and soft drinks, poor dairy intake, and sedentary lifestyle) were higher among home breakfast skippers. Unhealthy dietary habits, father's education being lower than university level, and father's unemployment status were related to their daughters' skipping breakfast. In addition, skipping breakfast is related to higher intake of energy‐dense food.
Al‐Otaibi (2013)29	Saudi Arabia	Urban + rural	21.74 (1.55)	960	Female university students	Fruit and vegetable consumption	Psychosocial factors	Self‐administered survey + anthropometric measurements by researcher	Students with better dietary knowledge more often consumed five or more servings per day than others with low dietary knowledge. Students with high self‐efficacy consumed more fruits and vegetables than students with low self‐efficacy. Perceived barriers and knowledge were not related to recommended daily fruit and vegetable intake.
Khalaf et al (2014)30	Saudi Arabia	Urban + rural	18 and older, 20.4 (1.50)	663	Female university students	Sociodemographic factors	Dietary habits	Self‐administered survey	Moderate activity level and low household monthly income of 3000 SAR or less were related to breakfast skipping. The intake of vegetables was lower only if the mother works, when siblings with obesity are present, with an increased intake if four siblings or more are obese and with high household income. There were negative associations between the intake of fruits and high number of sisters. On the other hand, the presence of obese siblings as well as high activity levels increased the students' intake of fruits. The age of the participants and their residency's proximity to supermarkets were negatively associated with the milk/dairy products intake. The intake of sugar‐sweetened drinks was significantly associated with the participants' BMI. Further, fast food consumption was negatively associated with the students' age, low activity level, and number of cars in the house. There was a positive correlation between the intake of French fries and potato chips, BMI levels, and the presence of one obese parent. The consumption of sweets/chocolate decreased significantly with increased BMI and if only the mother worked, and it increased with increased proximity to malls and higher educational level of the father. The energy drink intake was a correlate of the mother's higher educational level and lower household income.
Musaiger et al (2014)92	Kuwait	Urban + rural	19‐65	499	Arabs (252 males and 247 females)	Sociodemographic factors “gender” and knowledge	Fast food intake	Self‐administered survey	Fast food frequency intake per week was higher among men than women. Men were more likely to consume large‐size French fries (40.9% vs 34.0%) and soft drinks (37.3% vs 30.8%) than women. Men tend to eat more “double” burgers (52%) than women (29.9%).
Al‐Kandari (2006)54	Kuwait	Urban + rural	21‐77	424	Kuwaitis (212 males and 212 females)	Smoking	Dietary habits	Self‐administered survey + anthropometric measurements by researcher	No association was found regarding number of snacks eaten between meals daily and smoking habits.
Musaiger et al (2015)87	Bahrain	Urban + rural	20.1 (2.00)	642	University students (90 males and 552 females)	Sociodemographic factors “gender”	Dietary habits	Self‐administered survey	Females consumed more afternoon snacks than males (respectively, 35% and 19%). Males (25.6%) had higher consumption of fast food than females (22.5%). Males (50%) had higher fruits intake than females (43.3%). Males (41%) consumed significantly more carbonated beverages than females (19.7%).
Al Riyami et al (2010)62	Oman	Urban + rural	60 and older	2027	Elderlies (982 males and 1045 females)	Sociodemographic factors “gender” and knowledge	Dietary habits	Interview + survey by researcher	Women had higher nutritional knowledge than men. Women consumed less milk and fewer milk products than men (14.1% vs 18.8%). The consumption of fish/meat/chicken, cereals, vegetables, or fruits was not statistically different between genders.
Mabry et al (2012)64	Oman	Urban + rural	20 and older, 36.3 (12.5)	1335	Omanis (591 males and 744 females)	Physical (in)activity “leisure inactivity”	Dietary habits “FV intake”	Self‐administered survey	Leisure inactivity in women increased with less FV intake.
Musaiger and Abuirmeileh (1998)93	Emirates	Urban + rural	20 and older	2212	Emirati nationals (1122 males and 1090 females)	Sociodemographic factors “gender and age”	Dietary habits	Self‐administered survey	Men and older participants consumed food more often per day than did women and younger participants, respectively. Elderly people were more likely to consume traditional foods such as fish and laban (diluted yoghurt) than young people. Eggs, cheese, and chicken were found to be consumed significantly less often by older men than young men. Women consumed chicken, vegetables, bread, tea with milk, eggs, and cheese more frequently than men.
Al‐Thani et al (2017)94	Qatar	Urban + rural	18 and older	3723	Qatari and non‐Qatari households	Sociodemographic factors	Dietary habits	Self‐administered survey	Findings showed that the Qatari households purchased nearly 1.5 times more food in grams per capita per day (2118 g/capita/d) compared with the non‐Qatari households (1373 g/capita/d); however, the percentages of food groups in the basket were similar for both groups. Average daily energy (kcal) purchased per capita was almost double among Qatari household (4275 kcal) vs non‐Qatari household (2424 kcal).
Zaghloul et al (2012)95	Kuwait	Urban + rural	18 and older 38.9 (12.2)	9350	Attendees at the Kuwait Medical Council and Public Authority for Social Security facilities (4462 males and 4888 females)	Age, smoking, and physical inactivity	Fruit and vegetable consumption	Self‐administered survey + anthropometric measurements by researcher	Daily fruit and vegetable intake increased with age and BMI but decreased with smoking and physical inactivity.