Household, psychosocial, and individual-level factors associated with fruit, vegetable, and fiber intake among low-income urban African American youth

Abstract

BackgroundChildhood obesity, one of the greatest challenges to public health, disproportionately affects low-income urban minority populations. Fruits and vegetables (FV) are nutrient dense foods that may be inversely associated with excessive weight gain. We aimed to identify the individual characteristic, psychosocial, and household factors influencing FV and fiber consumption in low-income African-American (AA) youth in Baltimore, MD.MethodsCross-sectional analysis of data collected from 285 low-income AA caregiver-youth (age range: 10–14 y) dyads participating in the baseline evaluation of the B’More Healthy Communities for Kids obesity prevention trial. The Kid's Block FFQ was used to estimate daily intakes of FV (including 100 % fruit juice) and dietary fiber. Questionnaires were used to assess household socio-demographics, caregiver and youth food purchasing and preparation behavior, and youth psychosocial information. Ordered logit regression analyses were conducted to examine psychosocial and food-related behavior associated with FV and dietary fiber intake (quartile of intake) controlling for youth age, sex, BMI percentile, total calorie intake and household income.ResultsOn average, youth consumed 1.5 ± 1.1 (M ± SD) servings of fruit, 1.8 ± 1.7 serving of vegetables, and 15.3 ± 10.9 g of fiber/day. There were no differences by gender, age or household income. Greater youth’s healthy eating intentions and self-efficacy scores were associated with greater odds ratio for higher intake of FV and fiber (Intention: ORfruit 1.22; 95 % CI: 1.06–1.41, ORvegetable 1.31; 1.15–1.51 and ORfiber 1.46; 1.23–1.74, Self-efficacy: ORfruit 1.07; 1.03–1.12, ORvegetable 1.04; 1.01–1.09, ORfiber 1.10; 1.04–1.16). Youth receiving free/low-cost breakfast were more than twice as likely to have higher fiber intake than those who did not receive free breakfast (OR 2.7; 1.10; 6.9). In addition, youth shopping more frequently at supermarkets were more likely to have greater vegetable and fiber intake (OR 1.26; 1.06–1.50; OR 1.28; 1.03–1.58, respectively). Also, youth with parents who shopped more frequently at fast-food stores had 7 % lower odds for higher vegetable intake (95 % CI: 0.88–0.99).ConclusionIn this study, both, youth and household factors were associated with youth FV and fiber intake, underscoring the need for a multi-level approach to increasing youths’ diet quality. These results will inform and shape an effective intervention program for improving youth dietary intakes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3499-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Socioeconomic status and changes in appetite from toddlerhood to early childhood

“…Research has shown that repeated exposure to a specific food increases acceptance (Fildes, van Jaarsveld, Wardle, & Cooke, 2014;Gibson & Cooke, 2017;Turrell, 1998) and exposure to a wide variety of foods in infancy has been linked with greater dietary variety and reduced neophobia in childhood (Mallan, Fildes, Magarey, & Daniels, 2016). Children from more deprived backgrounds tend to be offered fewer fruits and vegetables (Trude et al, 2016), potentially reducing their opportunities for exposure and leading to narrower food preferences compared to children from more affluent households (Turrell, 1998). In this context, the finding of reduced food fussiness in children from lower SES backgrounds might seem counterintuitive.…”

Fiber Patterns in Young Adults Living in Different Environments (USA, Spain, and Tunisia). Anthropometric and Lifestyle Characteristics

“…However, high-income countries are more aware of the need to increase fiber intake in order to improve health. In these countries, a large variety of cheap and easy to eat fiber-enriched food, much appreciated by young adults, is available (snacks, bran breakfast cereals) [ 36 , 92 ]. This fact could clearly contribute to enhanced fiber intake.…”

Factors Affecting Dietary Practices in a Mississippi African American Community

“…Focusing on community intervention will help to address the widespread obesity and CVD epidemic in Mississippi and empower communities to build capacity to tackle the health disparity dilemmas that exist. These results will inform and shape an effective intervention program for improving dietary intakes [ 6 ]. Dissemination of information among community members about eating practices, and encouraging community members to be actively engaged in discussing and developing solutions within the local socio- structural contexts would also be an important step in addressing chronic disease risk reduction [ 28 ].…”

“…Childhood obesity has also become a major challenge to public health. Its high prevalence disproportionately affects low-income urban minority populations [ 6 ]. There is urgent need to increase community knowledge about risk factors for chronic diseases.…”