title: Barriers to nutrition as a health promotion practice for women with disabilities.
abstract: The purposes of this study were to examine the barriers to eating well experienced by women with physical disabilities and the services required to improve eating habits. Participants (mean age=48.9, SD=14.4) completed a questionnaire on health promotion behaviours (n=1096), which included a section on nutrition-related behaviours. Of the 31.8% who stated that they experienced barriers to nutrition, 88.9% wished to improve their eating habits. The most common barriers encountered were: too tired to cook (54.6%), organic/health foods too expensive (34.8%), nutritious foods too expensive (34.5%), lack of desire or will power (31.5%), government disability pension does not cover cost of food (30.6%), difficult to shop (25.1%) and not enough time for attendant to shop or prepare food (21.2%). The most common services identified to improve nutrition were: increase in disability pension (45.2%), assistance with shopping (31.3%), programs that deliver food (28.8%), increase attendant time for shopping/cooking (22.0%) and food box programs that provide single servings (20.1%). These results provide a holistic view of health-promoting behaviours in women with physical disabilities and suggest that greater emphasis should be placed on the individual in her social and structural environment when implementing programs for improving nutrition-related behaviours.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena