Personal, Social and Environmental Factors regarding Fruit and Vegetable Intake among Schoolchildren in Nine European Countries (original) (raw)
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European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2008
Objective: To investigate potential personal, social and physical environmental predictors of daily fruit intake and daily vegetable intake in 11-year-old boys and girls in nine European countries. Subjects: The total sample size was 13 305 (90.4% participation rate). Results: Overall, 43.2% of the children reported to eat fruit every day, 46.1% reported to eat vegetables every day. Daily fruit intake and daily vegetable intake was mainly associated with knowledge of the national recommendations, positive self-efficacy, positive liking and preference, parental modeling and demand and bringing fruit to school (odds ratio between 1.40 and 2.42, Po0.02). These factors were associated fairly consistently with daily fruit intake across all nine European countries, implying that a rather uniform intervention strategy to promote fruit can be used across Europe. For vegetables, the pattern was, however, less consistent. Differences between countries in cooking and preparing vegetables might be responsible for this larger diversity. Conclusions: This study showed that especially a combination of personal and social factors is related to daily fruit and vegetable intake in schoolchildren. This shows that a comprehensive multilevel intervention strategy based upon a series of individual and social correlates will be most promising in the promotion of daily fruit and vegetable intake in children.
The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 2006
Fruit and vegetable consumption is traditionally low in Iceland. The results of the Pro Children cross-Europe survey showed that the consumption was lowest among children in Iceland. The aim of this study was to identify determinants of fruit and vegetable intake among 11-year-old schoolchildren in Iceland. A cross-sectional survey was performed in Iceland in the autumn of 2003 as a part of the Pro Children cross-Europe survey. The survey was designed to provide information on actual consumption levels of vegetables and fruits by 11-year-old school children and to assess potential determinants of consumption patterns. A total of 1235 Icelandic children (89%) from 32 randomly chosen schools participated. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed to determine the explained variance of the children's fruit and vegetable intake. In these analyses socio-demographic background variables were entered as a first block, perceived physical-environmental variables as a second block, ...
Public Health Nutrition, 2005
Objectives: To investigate the internal consistency of the scales and the test -retest reliability and predictive validity of behaviour theory-based constructs measuring personal, social and environmental correlates of fruit and vegetable intake in 10 -11year-old children. Design: Test-retest with one-week interval. Setting: Five European countries: Norway, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, Belgium. Subjects: Three hundred and twenty-six children completed the questionnaire during class hours. Results: For the total sample across all countries, the test -retest reliability was good to very good (intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) . 0.60) for 12 out of the 15 fruit constructs and also for 12 out of the 15 vegetable constructs. Acceptable ICCs, ranging between 0.50 and 0.59, were found for the remaining constructs. Test-retest reliability was comparable across countries. Only in Portugal were some significantly lower ICCs found for some constructs (knowledge and barriers related to fruit, general self-efficacy related to fruit and vegetables) compared with the other countries. Cronbach's a values were moderate to high (range 0.52 to 0.89) with the exception of the general self-efficacy scale, which had a value below 0.50 for both fruit (a ¼ 0.42) and vegetables (a ¼ 0.49). Spearman correlations with intake ranged between 2 0.16 and 0.54 for personal determinants and between 0.05 and 0.38 for environmental determinants. Compared with other studies, predictive validity can be considered moderate to good. Conclusions: The questionnaire provides a reliable, valid and easy-to-administer tool for assessing personal, social and environmental factors of potential influence on fruit and vegetable intake in 10-11-year-olds.
Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, 2005
Background/Aims: The Pro Children Project was designed to assess fruit and vegetable consumption in European schoolchildren and their parents, as well as determinants of the children's consumption patterns. A second objective was to develop and test strategies, applicable across Europe, for promoting consumption of fruits and vegetables among schoolchildren and their parents. In this paper, the rationale, theoretical background, overall design and implementation of the project is presented. Methods: Surveys of national, representative samples of 11-year-old schoolchildren and their parents were conducted in 9 countries, i.e. in Austria,
The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 2011
Background: Fruit and vegetable (FV) intake in children in the Netherlands is much lower than recommended. Recurrent appraisal of intake levels is important for detecting changes in intake over time and to inform future interventions and policies. The aim of the present study was to investigate differences in fruit and vegetable intake, and whether these could be explained by differences in potential determinants of FV intake in 11-year-old Dutch schoolchildren, by comparing two school samples assessed in 2003 and 2009. Methods: For 1105 children of the Pro Children study in 2003 and 577 children of the Pro Greens study in 2009 complete data on intake and behavioural determinants were available. The self-administered questionnaire included questions on children's ethnicity, usual fruit and vegetable intake, mother's educational level, and important potential determinants of fruit and vegetable intake. Multiple regression analysis was applied to test for differences in intake and determinants between study samples. Mediation analyses were used to investigate whether the potential mediators explained the differences in intake between the two samples. Results: In 2009, more children complied with the World Health Organization recommendation of 400 g fruit and vegetables per day (17.0%) than in 2003 (11.8%, p = 0.004). Fruit consumption was significantly higher in the sample of 2009 than in the sample of 2003 (difference = 23.8 (95%CI: 8.1; 39.5) grams/day). This difference was mainly explained by a difference in the parental demand regarding their child's intake (23.6%), followed by the child's knowledge of the fruit recommendation (14.2%) and parental facilitation of consumption (18.5%). Vegetable intake was lower in the 2009 sample than in the 2003 sample (12.3 (95%CI -21.0; -3.6). This difference could not be explained by the assessed mediators.
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 2006
Background: Large proportions of children do not fulfil the World Health Organization recommendation of eating at least 400 grams of fruit and vegetables (FV) per day. To promote an increased FV intake among children it is important to identify factors which influence their consumption. Both qualitative and quantitative studies are needed. Earlier reviews have analysed evidence from quantitative studies. The aim of this paper is to present a systematic review of qualitative studies of determinants of children's FV intake. Methods: Relevant studies were identified by searching Anthropology Plus, Cinahl, CSA illumine, Embase, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, Medline, PsycINFO, and Web of Science using combinations of synonyms for FV intake, children/adolescents and qualitative methods as search terms. The literature search was completed by December 1st 2010. Papers were included if they applied qualitative methods to investigate 6-18year-olds' perceptions of factors influencing their FV consumption. Quantitative studies, review studies, studies reported in other languages than English, and non-peer reviewed or unpublished manuscripts were excluded. The papers were reviewed systematically using standardised templates for summary of papers, quality assessment, and synthesis of findings across papers.
Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, 2005
were treated using common syntax fi les for portion sizes and for merging of vegetable types into four subgroups. Results: The results show that the fruit and vegetable intake in amounts and choice were highly diverse in the 9 participating countries. Vegetable intake was in general lower than fruit intake, boys consumed less fruit and vegetables than girls did. The highest total intake according to the 24-hour recall was found in Austria and Portugal, the lowest in Spain and Iceland. Conclusion: The fruit and vegetable intake in 11-year-old children was in all countries far from reaching population goals and foodbased dietary guidelines on national and international levels.
Public health nutrition, 2014
Objective To describe fruit and vegetable intake of 11-year-old children in ten European countries and compare it with current dietary guidelines.Design Cross-sectional survey. Intake was assessed using a previously validated questionnaire containing a pre-coded 24 h recall and an FFQ which were completed in the classroom. Portion sizes were calculated using a standardized protocol.Setting Surveys were performed in schools regionally selected in eight countries and nationally representative in two countries.Subjects A total of 8158 children from 236 schools across Europe participating in the PRO GREENS project.Results The total mean consumption of fruit and vegetables was between 220 and 345 g/d in the ten participating countries. Mean intakes did not reach the WHO population goal of ≥400 g/d in any of the participating countries. Girls had a significantly higher intake of total fruit and vegetables than boys in five of the countries (Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Bulgaria and Slovenia). Mean total fruit intake ranged between 114 and 240 g/d and vegetable intake between 73 and 141 g/d. When using the level ≥400 g/d as a cut-off, only 23·5 % (13·8–37·0 %) of the studied children, depending on country and gender, met the WHO recommendation (fruit juice excluded).Conclusions Fruit and vegetable consumption was below recommended levels among the schoolchildren in all countries and vegetable intake was lower than fruit intake. The survey shows that there is a need for promotional activities to improve fruit and vegetable consumption in this age group.(Received March 18 2013)(Revised May 13 2014)(Accepted May 25 2014)
Public Health Nutrition, 2009
ObjectiveTo study the differences between children’s self-reports and parents’ reports on environmental determinants of fruit and vegetable intake among 11-year-old children in the European country with the lowest reported consumption. A second objective was to examine the observed variance in fruit and vegetable intake among the children.DesignA cross-sectional survey was performed in Iceland as a part of the Pro Children cross-Europe survey. Children’s usual fruit and vegetable intake and its determinants were assessed through self-reports from the children (n 963) and their parents’ reports.ResultsChildren reported lower availability and accessibility of fruits at home than did their parents, while the reports of children and parents for vegetables were more in agreement. A larger proportion of the observed variance in children’s fruit and vegetable intake could be explained by the child’s perception than by the parent’s perception of determinants. The strongest determinants for ...
Appetite, 2007
We studied the contributions of parental fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption, availability and accessibility of F&V in the home, exposure to F&V, and habit, in addition to psychosocial factors, in explaining F&V consumption in 4-12-year-old children. Furthermore, we looked for effect modification by ethnicity and gender. Children's parents (n ¼ 1739) completed a questionnaire assessing psychosocial and additional factors regarding their children's F&V consumption. Consumption was assessed by a foodfrequency questionnaire. The model explained the children's F&V consumption better when the additional factors were included (R 2 ¼ :49 and R 2 ¼ :50 for fruit consumption, and R 2 ¼ :33 and R 2 ¼ :33 for vegetable consumption). Stepwise multi-level regression analyses revealed that habit was the most influential correlate of F&V consumption. It is concluded that nutrition education interventions aimed at stimulating F&V consumption among children should take into account that the consumption of fruit and that of vegetables are clearly different behaviors, with different influencing factors for boys and girls and children of native or non-native background. Furthermore, interventions to increase F&V consumption should include strategies aimed at making these behaviors habitual. r