# Fish Consumption Frequency in the Adult Population in Poland
## 4 Discussion  
Food-based dietary guidelines in Poland emphasize the importance of eating fish, especially oily fish, such as salmon, herring, hake, and mackerel [4]. They were developed in the form of three steps. Step 1 concerns the initial stage of implementing the guidelines \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Type of Fish** & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Total Fish**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Sea Fish**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Freshwater Fish**} \\ \hline
**Parameter** & & **Total** & **Men** & **Women** & **Total** & **Men** & **Women** & **Total** & **Men** & **Women** \\ \hline Sex * & rs & 0.0111 & & & 0.0149 & & & \(-\)0.0062 & & \\  & \(p\) & 0.6715 & & & 0.5692 & & & 0.8126 & & \\ \hline Age & rs & \(-\)0.0112 & -0.0095 & \(-\)0.0121 & \(-\)0.0129 & \(-\)0.0084 & \(-\)0.0165 & \(-\)0.0391 & \(-\)0.0517 & \(-\)0.0267 \\  & \(p\) & 0.6672 & 0.801 & 0.739 & 0.623 & 0.8214 & 0.6526 & 0.1358 & 0.1704 & 0.4661 \\ \hline Educational level & rs & 0.0822 & 0.0968 & 0.0659 & 0.0564 & 0.0806 & 0.0322 & 0.0877 & 0.0774 & 0.0976 \\  & \(p\) & 0.0016 & 0.0097 & 0.0703 & 0.0312 & 0.0315 & 0.3778 & 0.0008 & 0.0397 & 0.0075 \\ \hline Economic status & rs & 0.1709 & 0.2352 & 0.1129 & 0.126 & 0.1963 & 0.0646 & 0.1245 & 0.143 & 0.1077 \\  & \(p\) & \(<\)0.0001 & \(<\)0.0001 & 0.0019 & 0.0001 & \(<\)0.0001 & 0.0768 & \(<\)0.0001 & 0.0001 & 0.0032 \\ \hline Place of residence ** & rs & 0.0779 & 0.0438 & 0.1095 & 0.0657 & 0.035 & 0.0937 & 0.0576 & 0.035 & 0.069 \\  & \(p\) & 0.0029 & 0.2438 & 0.0026 & 0.0121 & 0.3523 & 0.0103 & 0.0281 & 0.3523 & 0.0589 \\ \hline Health status & rs & 0.0763 & 0.1089 & 0.0453 & 0.0656 & 0.101 & 0.0323 & 0.0779 & 0.0655 & 0.0894 \\  & \(p\) & 0.0034 & 0.0036 & 0.2135 & 0.0121 & 0.007 & 0.376 & 0.0029 & 0.0822 & 0.0143 \\ \hline BMI value & rs & \(-\)0.0403 & \(-\)0.122 & 0.0172 & \(-\)0.0459 & \(-\)0.121 & 0.0064 & \(-\)0.0565 & \(-\)0.0911 & \(-\)0.0398 \\  & \(p\) & 0.1227 & 0.0011 & 0.6365 & 0.0796 & 0.0012 & 0.8600 & 0.0311 & 0.0154 & 0.2761 \\ \hline BMI status & rs & \(-\)0.0461 & \(-\)0.1005 & \(-\)0.003 & \(-\)0.0549 & \(-\)0.1078 & \(-\)0.0133 & \(-\)0.0482 & \(-\)0.0624 & \(-\)0.0436 \\  & \(p\) & 0.0774 & 0.0073 & 0.934 & 0.0358 & 0.004 & 0.7163 & 0.0659 & 0.0976 & 0.2331 \\ \hline Physical activity level & rs & 0.0262 & 0.0655 & \(-\)0.0095 & 0.0409 & 0.0583 & 0.0262 & \(-\)0.0214 & 0.0179 & \(-\)0.0574 \\  & \(p\) & 0.3167 & 0.0809 & 0.7941 & 0.1183 & 0.1205 & 0.4741 & 0.4155 & 0.6343 & 0.1164 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* range of men: 1, range of women: 2, ** range of rural: 1, range of urban: 2, rs—Spearman’s rho correlation coefficient.  
\end{table} 
Table 3: Relationships between sociodemographic factors, BMI, health status, physical activity level, and fish consumption frequency in the Polish adults. and indicates eating fish once a week, preferably oily fish. Step 2 concerns the recommended level and indicates eating fish at least twice a week, including oily fish at least once a week. Step 3 concerns achieving further health benefits and indicates eating a variety of oily fish twice a week. Most of the studied population did not follow these guidelines at the recommended level; 77.8% of subjects declared that they eat fish less than twice a week and 1.5% could not specify how often. Moreover, half of respondents (50.6%) did not eat fish even once a week. The frequency of fish consumption was part of a study conducted in Poland in 2021-2022 among young adults aged 19-30 years. The majority of that population reported a consumption frequency of from one to three times a month: 42% of men and 36% of women. Respectively, 17% and 15% of respondents consumed fish once a week, while 14% and 10% consumed fish less than once a month [28]. Although these percentages differed from those obtained in our study, the cited study [28] confirms the low fish consumption in the Polish population. Consumption according to the recommendations of at least twice a week was reported by only 15% of men and 19% of women.