[Determinants of fruit and vegetable consumption among People in the Age Range of 18-70 Years in Arak, Iran]

ABSTRACT

High fruit and vegetable intake has been introduced as one of the key factors of healthy diet to prevent chronic disease. This study attempts to explore the fruit and vegetable intake in Arak city and its relationship with demography and socio-economic factors. In this cross sectional study, 660 people in 18 -70 age range were selected with a two-stage cluster sampling and were interviewed for demography and socio -economic questionnaires and a 56- items semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire to assess fruit and vegetable intake. After univariate analysis, the association of the significant variables with fruit and vegetable intake was also evaluated with multiple linear regression. In this study, over 60 percent of subjects consumed less than the minimum recommended amount of fruit and vegetable [5 servings or 400 gr a day].The total consumption of fruit and vegetable indicated an inverse significant relationship with age [p =0.04 and beta = 0.02], and a direct significant relationship with economic status [p<0.001 and beta =0.10]. The father's educational level [beta=-0.005 and beta =0.38 for diploma level and beta =0.03 and beta=0.36 for academic education] and physical activity level [p =0.001 and beta -0.03 per hour] were factors associated with fruit consumption. The gender was only associated with vegetable consumption so that women had higher consumption in this study [p=0.03 and beta=0.23]. The findings of this study indicate low fruit and vegetable consumption in the population under study. In this study, age, physical activity, and socioeconomic status and fathers' education were the factors that were significantly associated with fruit and vegetable consumption