Demographic, Psychosocial, and Educational Factors Related to Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Adults

Stables, Gloria J.

Demographic, Psychosocial, and Educational Factors Related to Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Adults

dc.contributor.author	Stables, Gloria J.	en
dc.contributor.committeechair	Wiswell, Albert W.	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Huebner, Angela J.	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Cline, Marvin Gerald	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Hertzler, Ann A.	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Storey, Maureen	en
dc.contributor.department	Human Development	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-03-14T20:06:41Z	en
dc.date.adate	2002-01-11	en
dc.date.available	2014-03-14T20:06:41Z	en
dc.date.issued	2001-12-12	en
dc.date.rdate	2003-01-11	en
dc.date.sdate	2002-01-10	en
dc.description.abstract	Recent global statistics estimate 20% of all cancer incidence could be prevented if Americans would modify their eating habits to increase fruit and vegetable intake to the minimum recommended level of five servings daily. Educational strategies to change eating behavior would benefit from a greater understanding of psychosocial and demographic factors related dietary behavior. Secondary analysis of a nationally representative survey of 2655 adults was completed to assess differences between low-income and high-income adults in psychosocial, demographic, and educational factors related to fruit and vegetable intake. Significant differences in self-efficacy, awareness/knowledge, and cost and availability of fruits and vegetables were found between the low-income and high-income groups. In the low-income group, 37% of the variance in total fruit and vegetable consumption was explained by psychosocial and demographic factors, with demographics, self-efficacy and awareness/knowledge being the most significant predictors. In the high-income group, 34% of the variance in total fruit and vegetable consumption was explained by psychosocial and demographic factors, with self-efficacy alone accounting for 14% of the variance. This research suggests that, regardless of income category, social cognitive factors, in particular self-efficacy and knowledge/awareness of the health message, are stronger predictors of fruit and vegetable consumption than are perceived barrier factors. Given the weaknesses of the survey instrument, the findings need to interpreted with caution. Policy inferences can be suggested from this research, but would need further research findings before implementation of nutrition policy recommendations. The implications of these research findings are that nutrition education interventions to increase fruit and vegetable consumption should be aimed at affecting those psychosocial factors that are predictive of behavior change. In particular, differences by income level between psychosocial, education, and behavior responses underscore the need for tailoring educational interventions by income group for greater impact. The most relevant psychosocial predictors of fruit and vegetable consumption in adults are self-efficacy, awareness/knowledge of the health message, social support, and weak intent. The most relevant demographic predictors were smoking status, educational level, and age. Income level appears to share variance with other demographic variables and should be explored in further research.	en
dc.description.degree	Ph. D.	en
dc.identifier.other	etd-01102002-165320	en
dc.identifier.sourceurl	http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-01102002-165320/	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10919/25980	en
dc.publisher	Virginia Tech	en
dc.relation.haspart	backmatter.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	bodymatter.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	frontmatter.pdf	en
dc.rights	In Copyright	en
dc.rights.uri	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/	en
dc.subject	Nutrition Education	en
dc.subject	Self-efficacy	en
dc.subject	Psychosocial Factors	en
dc.subject	Dietary Behavior	en
dc.title	Demographic, Psychosocial, and Educational Factors Related to Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Adults	en
dc.type	Dissertation	en
thesis.degree.discipline	Human Development	en
thesis.degree.grantor	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	en
thesis.degree.level	doctoral	en
thesis.degree.name	Ph. D.	en