The new helping the old Social media as a facilitator for variety seeking in food choices of the grey population

Purpose Evidence has shown that the population is growing "increasingly gray" and growing too are the concerns for the elderly population with regards to their food choices. Being well informed and seeking variety in food choices increase the likelihood that people will be better nourished and hence improve the quality of life for this group, and at the same time be beneficial for society overall. The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of social network usage on food choice. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a series of logistic and ordinal logistic regression models using Health and Wellness Survey data and Internet Usage Survey data from the National Statistical Office of Thailand. The data sets contain information on health status, food consumption, proportion of population using the internet, and detailed demographics. Findings Empirical results show the association between variety in food consumption and lower probability of being chronically ill. More importantly, social network usage is found to significantly encourage variety seeking behavior (VSB) in food consumption. Originality/value This paper utilizes two large representative data sets with detailed information which does not only allow for controlled analyses but also provides implications for the growing aging consumer segment.