Associations of psychosocial factors with fruit and vegetable intake among African-Americans.
OBJECTIVE
To examine associations of various psychosocial factors with fruit and vegetable intake in African-American adults.


METHODS
A cross-sectional survey of a population-based sample of 658 African-Americans, aged 18-70 years, in North Carolina. Information was collected on diet-related psychosocial (predisposing, reinforcing and enabling) factors based on the PRECEDE (Predisposing, Reinforcing, and Enabling Constructs in Educational Diagnosis and Evaluation) planning framework; demographic, lifestyle and behavioural characteristics, and fruit and vegetable intake.


RESULTS
The mean participant age was 43.9 years (standard deviation 11.6), 57% were female and 76% were overweight/obese. Participants expressed healthy beliefs regarding many of, but not all, the psychosocial factors. For example, although half of the respondents believed it is important to eat a diet high in fruits/vegetables, only 26% knew that >or=5 daily servings are recommended. The strongest associations of the psychosocial factors with fruit/vegetable intake were for predisposing factors (e.g. belief in the importance of a high fruit/vegetable diet and knowledge of fruit/vegetable recommendations) and one reinforcing factor (social support), with differences between the healthiest and least healthy responses of 0.5-1.0 servings per day. There was evidence of effect modification by gender in associations between psychosocial factors and fruit/vegetable consumption (e.g. self-efficacy was only significant in women), with higher intakes and generally healthier responses to the psychosocial variables in women than men.


CONCLUSIONS
Interventions to increase fruit/vegetable intake in African-Americans may be more effective if they focus primarily on predisposing factors, such as knowledge, self-efficacy and attitudes, but not to the exclusion of reinforcing and enabling factors. The psychosocial factors that are targeted may also need to be somewhat different for African-American men and women.
Watters
Joanne L
JL
Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Satia
Jessie A
JA
Galanko
Joseph A
JA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005638:Fruit; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009657:North Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D012944:Social Support; D014675:Vegetables