Availability, accessibility, and preferences for fruit, 100% fruit juice, and vegetables influence children's dietary behavior.

The relationships among home fruit (F), 100% fruitjuice (J), and vegetable (V) availability and accessibility separately, as reported by 225 fourth- through sixth-grade children and their parents (n = 88), separately, and FJV preferences to child-reported FJV consumption were assessed. For girls, child-reported FJV availability and accessibility accounted for 35% of the variability in FJV consumption. Child-reported availability and parent-reported accessibility were significantly correlated with child FJV consumption in a combined model. For children with high FJV preferences, FJV availability was the only significant predictor, whereas both availability and accessibility were significantly related to consumption for children with low FJV preferences. Interventions targeting child dietary behaviors may need to tailor to the home environment, separately by gender. Extra efforts are necessary by parents to enhance accessibility among children who do not like FJV.

Validation of a fruit, juice, and vegetable availability questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the validity of a self-reported fruit, juice, and vegetable home availability measure. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: In-home interviews. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-eight parents of fourth to sixth grade children. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Scales assessing self-reported home availability of fruit, 100% fruit juice, and vegetables over the past 7 days compared with an observed home inventory conducted on the interview day. ANALYSES: Cohen's kappa of agreement, specificity and sensitivity, and correlations, with significance level <.05. RESULTS: There was substantial agreement between self-reported and observed home inventories of many fruit, 100% fruit juice, and vegetables among participating families in this study. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Self-reported shelf inventories can be an effective tool for use in assessing the availability of fruit, juice, and vegetables in the home.

Squire's Quest! Dietary outcome evaluation of a multimedia game.

BACKGROUND: Fruit, juice, and vegetable (FJV) consumption among children is low. Innovative programs are needed to enable children to increase FJV intake. Psychoeducational multimedia permits the delivery of interventions as designed and capitalizes on known behavior change principles. DESIGN: Elementary school was the unit of recruitment, assignment, and analysis. Twenty-six elementary schools were pair matched on size and percentage of free or reduced-price lunch, and randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Data were collected just before and just after the program. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: All fourth-grade students in participating elementary schools were invited to participate. Data were collected on 1578 students. MAIN OUTCOME Servings of fruit, 100% juice, and vegetables consumed. INTERVENTION: Squire's Quest! is a ten-session, psychoeducational, multimedia game delivered over 5 weeks, with each session lasting about 25 minutes. Based on social cognitive theory, educational activities attempted to increase preferences for FJV through multiple exposures and associating fun with their consumption, increase asking behaviors for FJV at home and while eating out, and increase skills in FJV preparation through making virtual recipes. MEASURES: Four days of dietary intake were assessed before and after the intervention. Assessment was made by the Food Intake Recording Software System (FIRSSt), which conducts a multiple pass, 24-hour dietary intake interview directly with the children. RESULTS: Children participating in Squire's Quest! increased their FJV consumption by 1.0 servings more than the children not receiving the program. CONCLUSIONS: Psychoeducational multimedia games have the potential to substantially change dietary behavior. More research is warranted.

The food intake recording software system is valid among fourth-grade children.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the validity of the Food Intake Recording Software System (FIRSSt) against observation of school lunch and a 24-hour dietary recall (24hDR); and to test the effects of sequencing, observation and a hair sample as a bogus pipeline on accuracy of dietary report. DESIGN: Six-group design systematically varying sequence of self-report (FIRSSt vs 24hDR), observation of school lunch and hair sample as a bogus pipeline manipulation, with random assignment of participants. SUBJECTS/SETTING: 138 fourth-grade students in 2 elementary schools. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Accuracy of reported food consumption was measured in terms of matches, intrusions, and omissions among the FIRSSt, 24hDR, and as observed at school lunch. Students also completed self-report of performance with FIRSSt. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS PERFORMED: t tests, Pearson correlations, analysis of variance, factor analysis. RESULTS: When compared with school lunch observation for one meal, FIRSSt attained 46% match, 24% intrusion and 30% omission rates, while a dietitian-conducted 24hDR obtained 59% match, 17% intrusion, and 24% omission rates. FIRSSt attained 60% match, 15% intrusion, and 24% omission rates against 24hDR for all meals in the previous day. There was no evidence of sequence of assessment affecting accuracy indicators, but there was a weak effect of school lunch observation on percent intrusions. Obtaining a hair sample reduced the omission rate for FIRSSt vs 24hDR and increased the match rate for 24hDR vs observation, thereby enhancing this as a bogus pipeline procedure. Children generally enjoyed completing FIRSSt. Hispanic children were more likely to report problems using FIRSSt. APPLICATIONS/CONCLUSIONS: FIRSSt is somewhat less accurate than a dietitian-conducted 24hDR. However, this lower-cost procedure provides a promising method for assessing diet among children. Observation of consumption at school lunch may be reactive and artificially increase agreement. Obtaining a hair sample as a bogus pipeline may be a valuable technique for enhancing the accuracy of dietary assessment among children.