title: The influence of gender and self-efficacy on healthy eating in a low-income urban population affected by structural changes to the food environment.
abstract: Although U.S. obesity prevention efforts have begun to implement a variety of system and environmental change strategies to address the underlying socioecological barriers to healthy eating, factors which can impede or facilitate community acceptance of such interventions are often poorly understood. This is due, in part, to the paucity of subpopulation health data that are available to help guide local planning and decision-making. We contribute to this gap in practice by examining area-specific health data for a population targeted by federally funded nutrition interventions in Los Angeles County. Using data from a local health assessment that collected information on sociodemographics, self-reported health behaviors, and objectively measured height, weight, and blood pressure for a subset of low-income adults (n = 720), we compared health risks and predictors of healthy eating across at-risk groups using multivariable modeling analyses. Our main findings indicate being a woman and having high self-efficacy in reading Nutrition Facts labels were strong predictors of healthy eating (P < 0.05). These findings suggest that intervening with women may help increase the reach of these nutrition interventions, and that improving self-efficacy in healthy eating through public education and/or by other means can help prime at-risk groups to accept and take advantage of these food environment changes.
authors.affiliation: Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 3530 Wilshire Boulevard, 8th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, USA.
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6023-7809
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Robles
authors.affiliation: Office of Health Assessment and Epidemiology, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 313 North Figueroa Street, Room 127, Los Angeles, CA 90012, USA ; Department of Epidemiology, UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, Box 951772, 71-254 CHS, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa V
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8003-1007
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 3530 Wilshire Boulevard, 8th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, USA.
authors.forename: Mirna
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5011-7459
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ponce
authors.affiliation: Office of Health Assessment and Epidemiology, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 313 North Figueroa Street, Room 127, Los Angeles, CA 90012, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8938-1369
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Piron
authors.affiliation: Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 3530 Wilshire Boulevard, 8th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, USA ; Department of Family Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 10880 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1800, Los Angeles, CA 90024-4142, USA.
authors.forename: Tony
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4120-8559
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004777:Environment; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D015141:Los Angeles; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control; D011203:Poverty; D011932:Reading; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012737:Sex Factors; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult