The Health Education Authority's health and lifestyle survey 1993: who arethe low fruit and vegetable consumers?

Study objective-Firstly, to determine the demographic and behavioural chara cteristics of low fruit and vegetable consumers. Secondly, to investigate w hether knowledge and attitudes are barriers to consumption of fruit and veg etables. Design-Cross sectional survey: an interviewer administrated questionnaire w as used to assess the demographic, knowledge, attitude, and behavioural cha racteristics of the respondents. Setting-England. Participants-Random sample of 5553 men and women aged between 16 and 74 yea rs. Response rate 70%. Main results-The main demographic characteristics of the respondents identi fied as low consumers of fruit and vegetables (less than daily consumption of either fruit or vegetables) were age, sex, and smoking status. The adjus ted odds ratios were 2.59 for those aged 16-24 years compared with those ag ed 45-74 years, 2.17 for men compared with women, and 1.77 for current smok ers compared with never smokers. The most important knowledge and attitude statements after adjusting for the demographic variables were disagreeing w ith the statement "healthy foods are enjoyable" (odds ratio 1.90) and agree ing with the statement "I don't really care what I eat" (odds ratio 1.76). The impact of knowledge seemed less important than attitudes about a health y diet in characterising a low fruit and vegetable consumer. Conclusions-These findings are relevant to future strategies for improving intake of fruit and vegetables, but demonstrate the complexity of intervent ions required, and the dangers inherent in assuming simplistic relations be tween psychosocial factors and behaviour.