Knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to fruit and vegetable consumption of high school students

Purpose: To assess the level of nutrition knowledge, attitudes and practice s related to fruit and vegetable consumption of high school students attend ing participating parochial schools in the New Orleans area. Methods: The baseline data reported in this study, "Gimme 5: A Fresh Nutrit ion Concept for Students," represents one of the nine National Cancer Insit ute-funded projects from the national "5-A-Day for Better Health Program" i nitiated in 1991. A survey containing 22 nutrition-related items about frui t and vegetables was used to assess knowledge in 2213 students. Results: On average, adolescents reported 39% correct knowledge scores. A s ignificant ethnic effect (p < .001) was noted, with White adolescents scori ng higher than African American adolescents. Significant ethnic differences in the frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption were also observed, wi th African-American adolescents reporting a lower mean consumption (2.17 se rvings) than white adolescents (2.69 servings). Consumption by Hispanic you th (2.48 servings) was similar to those in the "other" ethnic category (2.5 5 servings). Girls reported being more confident in their ability to eat fi ve servings of fruits and vegetables per day than did boys (p < .05). Conclusions: Although the knowledge and consumption levels of adolescents w ith regard to fruits and vegetables were low, their attitudes toward learni ng about healthier eating practices were favorable. (C) Society for Adolesc ent Medicine, 1999.