title: Which Food Security Determinants Predict Adequate Vegetable Consumption among Rural Western Australian Children?
abstract: Improving the suboptimal vegetable consumption among the majority of Australian children is imperative in reducing chronic disease risk. The objective of this research was to determine whether there was a relationship between food security determinants (FSD) (i.e., food availability, access, and utilisation dimensions) and adequate vegetable consumption among children living in regional and remote Western Australia (WA). Caregiver-child dyads (n= 256) living in non-metropolitan/rural WA completed cross-sectional surveys that included questions on FSD, demographics and usual vegetable intake. A total of 187 dyads were included in analyses, which included descriptive and logistic regression analyses via IBM SPSS (version 23). A total of 13.4% of children in this sample had adequate vegetable intake. FSD that met inclusion criteria (p≤ 0.20) for multivariable regression analyses included price; promotion; quality; location of food outlets; variety of vegetable types; financial resources; and transport to outlets. After adjustment for potential demographic confounders, the FSD that predicted adequate vegetable consumption were, variety of vegetable types consumed (p= 0.007), promotion (p= 0.017), location of food outlets (p= 0.027), and price (p= 0.043). Food retail outlets should ensure that adequate varieties of vegetable types (i.e., fresh, frozen, tinned) are available, vegetable messages should be promoted through food retail outlets and in community settings, towns should include a range of vegetable purchasing options, increase their reliance on a local food supply and increase transport options to enable affordable vegetable purchasing.
authors.affiliation: School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup 6027, Australia. s.godrich@ecu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Stephanie L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Godrich
authors.affiliation: School of Science, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup 6027, Australia. j.lo@ecu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Johnny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.affiliation: School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley 6009, Australia. christina.davies@uwa.edu.au.|Public Health Advocacy Institute of Western Australia, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth 6845, Australia. christina.davies@uwa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Christina R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.affiliation: School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup 6027, Australia. j.darby@ecu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Darby
authors.affiliation: School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup 6027, Australia. a.devine@ecu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Devine
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D040541:Marketing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012931:Social Environment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014675:Vegetables; D014904:Western Australia
keywords: child; food security; regional and remote Australia; vegetables