Barriers to Preparing and Cooking Vegetables Are Associated with Decreased Home Availability of Vegetables in Low-Income Households

Abstract

Knowing which barriers to buying and preparing/cooking vegetables at home are linked with the home availability of vegetables and how food-security status impacts this relationship will facilitate the tailoring of future public health interventions. Baseline data were used from an elementary-school-based intervention. Data on household food-security status, availability of vegetables at home, and barriers to buying and preparing/cooking vegetables were collected from 1942 parents. Differences between food-secure and food-insecure households were examined for barriers to buying and preparing/cooking vegetables. Mixed-effects linear regression was used to estimate the associations between barriers to buying and preparing/cooking vegetables and food-security status on the home availability of vegetables. Food insecurity was reported in 27% of households. Food-insecure households were significantly more likely to report barriers to buying and preparing/cooking vegetables. The barriers to purchasing/cooking vegetables score was associated with a decrease in the home availability of vegetables score (β = −0.77; 95% CI: −0.88, −0.65; p < 0.001). Compared to food-secure households, food-insecure households were 15% less likely to have home vegetable availability (β = −1.18; 95% CI: −1.45, −0.92; p < 0.001). Although home availability of vegetables does not guarantee consumption, this study identified specific barriers that were associated with availability that can be targeted in future interventions seeking to improve vegetable consumption in the homes of low-income families.

Relationship Between School Gardening and Self-Efficacy Towards Weekly Fruit & Vegetable Intake

“…These findings are consistent with earlier reports that highlighted the importance of self-efficacy in improved fruit and vegetable intake [26,28]. However, the study by Landry MJ et al, [1] did not establish a significant relationship between enhanced self-efficacy and gardening activities in improving dietary intake of fruits and vegetables. Similarly, Keyte et al [29] did not establish an association between gardening at school and increased self-efficacy towards the dietary intake of fruits and vegetables.…”

“…Jennifer, L., Staub, D. & Colby, S [11] reported improoved self efficacy towards the intake of fruits and vegetables among the gardening group than the control group. However, Landry MJ et al, [1] did not establish the relation between enhanced self-efficacy and gardening activities in improving weekly dietary intake of fruits and vegetables. On the other hand, ealier studies by Ding et al, [12] and Gannan et al, [4] reported that home food and vegetable environment such as accesibility, availability and variety are the key determinants of the self-efficacy towards routine fruit and vegetable intake rather than school gardening activities.…”

“…Suboptimal fruit and vegetable intake may increase chances of development of obesity, increased risk of type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM), increased visceral fat, liver fat, and insulin resistance [1]. Moreover, inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption accounts for 6.7 million deaths globally from noncommunicable diseases [2] in adults with history of unhealthy eating early in life [3].…”

Evaluation of a COVID-influenced Curriculum to Address Food Insecurity in a Detroit Family Medicine Residency Clinic

“…16,17 Unfortunately, many patient education programs may fail to adequately identify food insecurity levels among Evaluation of a COVID-influenced Curriculum to Address Food Insecurity in a Detroit Family Medicine Residency Clinic 22 Patients are frequently forced to make unhealthy food choices due to cost, lack of education or lack of access to nutritional food items. 12,13 Our demonstrated improvements in HbA1c levels suggest that many pre-diabetic patient's health can be improved without requiring additional diabetes medications when provided nutritional education and office visit guidance.…”

“…[9][10][11] Several additional factors influencing consumption of suboptimal dietary components as identified by clinic-based providers include perceived time constraints, food taste, impaired access to more nutritional foods and cost. 12,13 During project planning, the authors concluded with colleagues that many patients at their Michigan primary care residency clinic were consuming poorer-quality diets con-sisting of high-fat calorie laden foods with low nutrient density. During their scheduled pre-project clinic office visits, physicians had tried to routinely provide patients with basic dietary and exercise advice and brief recommendations to implement "diet and lifestyle changes" into their lifestyles as recommended in the 2015 United States Preventative Service Task Force Guidelines.…”