Exploring Meat Attachment and Consumption Patterns in Primary Care Patients: Insights From the Four-Item Meat Attachment Questionnaire

Background: The 16-item Meat Attachment Questionnaire measures emotional and cognitive attachment to meat across four dimensions: hedonism, affinity, entitlement, and dependence. A shorter version, the four-item Meat Attachment Questionnaire (MAQ-4), with scores ranging from 4 to 20, has recently been validated in French (MAQf-4). This study is a planned secondary analysis of an existing dataset and examines the association between meat attachment, as measured by the MAQf-4, and meat consumption patterns among primary care patients in the Geneva area. Methods: This cross-sectional study surveyed 336 primary care patients (204, 61.3%, women; participation rate = 79.1%) from the Geneva area, collecting data on demographics, meat consumption frequencies (poultry, beef, veal, and pork), and MAQf-4 scores. Differences in MAQf-4 scores by demographic characteristics were analyzed using independent t-tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multivariable linear regressions. Additionally, ANOVA and multivariable linear regressions assessed the relationship between MAQf-4 scores and meat consumption patterns. Results: The average MAQf-4 score was 13.6 (standard deviation (SD) 3.6), with men scoring higher than women (14.6 vs. 13.0, adjusted difference: 1.9 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2-2.6), adjusted P-value <0.001). Poultry was the most frequently consumed meat, with 124 (39%) participants eating it more than once a week. Higher MAQf-4 scores were significantly associated with greater meat consumption across all categories; for instance, those consuming poultry more than once a week had a mean score of 14.6 compared to 9.9 for non-consumers (adjusted difference: 4.2 (95% CI 3.0-5.5), adjusted P-value < 0.001). Conclusions: The MAQf-4 is strongly associated with meat consumption patterns. Its brevity makes it a potentially useful tool for research and clinical settings to assess meat attachment.