Weight Resilience and Fruit and Vegetable Intake Among African-American Women in an Obesogenic Environment
Published in: Public Health Nutrition [October 2017]. doi: 10.1017/S1368980017002488
Posted on RAND.org on December 05, 2017
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Access further information on this document at Cambridge University PressThis article was published outside of RAND. The full text of the article can be found at the link above.
Objective
To investigate relationships between weight resilience (maintaining a normal weight in a food desert environment) and fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake, attitudes and barriers.
Design
Cross-sectional, in-person surveys collected May-December 2011, including self-reported data on F&V-related psychosocial factors, attitudes and barriers. Two 24 h dietary recalls were completed; weight and height were measured. Multivariable regression models estimated prevalence ratios (95 % CI).
Setting
Two low-income, predominantly African-American food deserts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Subjects
Women aged 18–49 years (n 279) who were the primary food shopper in a household randomly selected for a parent study.
Results
Fifteen per cent were weight resilient, 30 % were overweight and 55 % were obese. Overall, 25 % reported eating ≥5 F&V servings/d. After adjustment for age, education, parity, employment, living alone, physical activity, per capita income and mean daily energy intake, women eating ≥5 F&V servings/d were 94 % more likely to be weight resilient compared with those eating <5 servings/d (1·94; 1·10, 3·43). Across BMI groups, self-efficacy regarding F&V consumption was high and few F&V barriers were reported. The most frequently reported barrier was concern about the cost of F&V (36 %). Of the attitudinal F&V-related factors, only concern about wasting food when serving F&V was associated with weight resilience in adjusted models (0·29; 0·09, 0·94). In a model predicting consuming ≥5 F&V servings/d, driving one's own car to the store was the only attitudinal F&V-related factor associated with consumption (1·50; 1·00, 2·24).
Conclusions
In this population, weight resilience may be encouraged by improving access to affordable and convenient F&V options and providing education on ways to make them palatable to the entire household, rather than by shifting women's F&V perceptions, which are already positive.
This article was published outside of RAND. The full text of the article can be found at the link above.
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