Social, attitudinal and behavioural correlates of fruit and vegetable consumption among Cypriot adolescents

Abstract

Objective: To examine the prevalence and correlates of fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption in Cypriot adolescents. Design: A cross-sectional study. Setting: The Republic of Cyprus. Subjects: A total of 1966 adolescents with a mean age of 14?7 (SD 2?2) years from nine elementary (n 448), six middle (n 657), five high (n 475) and five technical/ vocational schools (n 386) in Cyprus. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing FV consumption using a two-item screening measure and a number of social, attitudinal and behavioural correlates of FV consumption. Results: Overall, 19?3 % of adolescents reported consuming five or more portions of FV daily, with elementary and middle school students more likely to meet recommendations (23?8 % and 24?4 %, respectively) compared with high and technical/vocational school students (14?0 % and 12?5 %, respectively). Consuming five or more portions of FV was associated with preference for FV (OR 5 2?2), family eating patterns (OR 5 1?5), friends' FV consumption (OR 5 1?2) and school support for FV consumption (OR 5 0?8). Consuming at least one portion of fruit daily was significantly associated with preference for FV (OR 5 2?0) and family eating patterns (OR 5 1?7). Consuming at least one portion of vegetables daily was associated with preference for FV (OR 5 4?2) and eating while watching television (OR 5 0?8). Conclusions: Targeting individual and family-based components may enhance the effectiveness of intervention programmes to promote FV consumption. Keywords Cyprus Adolescents Fruit VegetablesFruit and vegetable (FV) consumption is associated with a reduced risk of cancer, CVD and obesity (1) . A recent study indicated that FV consumption protects against markers of inflammation and oxidative stress from early adolescence onwards (2) . Daily intake of FV in adolescents has declined (3) and studies among children and adolescents have shown that they do not achieve the target of consuming at least 400 g or five portions of FV daily (4,5) . In the UK and Australia 44?8 % and 52?4 % of adolescents, respectively, meet the recommendation of five or more portions of FV daily (6,7) . Data from nine European countries indicate that 43?2 % of children consume fruit and 46?1 % consume vegetables every day (8) , whereas data from Mexico suggest that 61?0 % of children consume FV at least once daily (9) . Studies also indicate that girls are more likely to meet the recommendation of five or more portions of FV daily compared with boys (7,9,10) .Recently, social-ecological models have been proposed for the better understanding of factors that influence nutritional behaviour, as they focus not only on individual factors but also on social and physical environmental factors (11)(12)(13) . These multilevel models acknowledge the influence of multiple factors on nutritional behaviour; however, they refer to domains of influence rather than to specific variables (13,14) . Further, as studies have focused on physical environmental variables, more studies are needed that examine t...