Our aim was to investigate how socio-demographic factors influence trends and age-related trajectories of fish consumption. We examined consumption of total, fried and recommended fish (white and oily fish. and shellfish) in the Whitehall 11 study over I I years in participants aged 39-59 years at phase 3. The cohort included 8358 British civil servants who completed a FFQ at phase 3 (1991-3). phase 5 (1997-9. n 5430) and phase 7 (2002-4 n 5692). Occupational grade. ethnicity, marital and retirement status were collected at each phase. To analyse changes in age-related trends of fish intake over time according to socio-demographic characteristics. we applied a random mixed-effect model. Over the follow-up a significant increase in consumption of 'recommended' (mean: 1.85 to 2.22 portions/week) and total fish (mean: 2.32 to 2.65 portions/week) and a decreasing trend in fried-fish intake (mean: 0.47 to 0.43 portions/week) was observed. Recommended. fried and total fish consumption differed by occupational status, ethnicity. marital Status and sex. The trend of age-related fish intake diverged significantly by ethnicity. In South Asian participants (n 432). slope of recommended-fish consumption was significantly higher compared with white participants (0.077 v. 0.025 portions/week per year). For black participants (n 275) slope of fried-fish intake was significantly higher compared with white participants (0.0052 v. -0.0025 portions/week per year). In terms of public health. our descriptive and analytical work allows detailed Understanding of the impact of socio-demographic factors oil fish intake and its age-related trends. Such information is Valuable for food policies that seek to promote health equity
