Nutritional behaviour of households: an analysis of Slovak consumers

The aim of the paper is to present the attitude of mothers to choosing healthy food for their children and other members of their households. The survey was conducted in the period of January-May 2019 on a sample of 1373 respondents from Slovakia. We were interested in discovering the extent to which households in which the mother has the decisive word differ from other households in terms of their food choices. The most relevant test for achieving the goal was a nonparametric, two-sample Mann-Whitney test. We also created regression decision trees with the help of a CRT algorithm. Furthermore, we were interested in determining the differences in four areas: firstly in terms of the content of consumed food; secondly in terms of eating healthy food; thirdly in terms of the frequency of eating special types of food; and finally the frequency of eating outside the home. The research results show that a mother’s nutritional behaviour, knowledge, attitude and practice may significantly influence the behaviour of her relatives. Lifestyle changes can also provide an appropriate home-food environment in order to adopt healthy behavioural models. Mothers, as consumers, should also be supported by food manufacturers in making healthier food choices through supplying more complete and correct information about their products and creating educational programmes to strengthen their knowledge of cooking. These findings can be used by nutritional programmes to promote the purchasing of healthy food to Slovak consumers