Social support is a primary influence on home fruit, 100% juice, and vegetable availability.
Children tend to eat more fruit and vegetables when more are available in the home. We proposed and tested a model that predicts the availability at home (hereinafter termed "home availability") of fruit, 100% juice, and vegetables, using new measures of frequency of food shopping, purchase, and comparative purchase outcome expectancies (ie, the perceived benefits and costs of purchasing fruit and vegetables), home food pantry management practices, family social support for purchasing fruit and vegetables, food shopping practices, and body mass index (BMI). Participants (N=98) were recruited in 2004 in front of grocery stores and completed two telephone interviews. Cross-sectional hierarchical regression was employed with backward deletion of nonsignificant variables. Despite many statistically significant bivariate correlations between the new variables and home fruit, 100% juice, and vegetable availability, social support was the primary predictor of home fruit availability in multivariate regression. BMI and home 100% juice pantry management were the primary predictors of home 100% juice availability. Social support, BMI, and shopping practices were the primary predictors of home vegetable availability. Social support for purchasing fruit, 100% juice, and vegetables was an important, consistent predictor of home availability. These findings need to be replicated in larger samples.
Baranowski
Tom
T
US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030-2600, USA. tbaranow@bcm.tmc.edu <tbaranow@bcm.tmc.edu>
Watson
Kathy
K
Missaghian
Mariam
M
Broadfoot
Alison
A
Cullen
Karen
K
Nicklas
Theresa
T
Fisher
Jennifer
J
Baranowski
Janice
J
O'Donnell
Sharon
S
D000328:Adult; D001628:Beverages; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D003132:Commerce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004034:Diet Surveys; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005638:Fruit; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012928:Social Desirability; D012944:Social Support; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014481:United States; D014675:Vegetables