Determinants of the Home Food Environment

abstract: Determining the factors associated with the availability of healthy and unhealthy foods in the household may help in understanding the varying complexities that contribute to obesity among children and help design interventions to impact children's food consumption behaviors. This stu...

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Other Authors: Berry, Andrea I. (Author)
Format: Dissertation
Language:English
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.14894
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spelling ndltd-asu.edu-item-148942018-06-22T03:02:56Z Determinants of the Home Food Environment abstract: Determining the factors associated with the availability of healthy and unhealthy foods in the household may help in understanding the varying complexities that contribute to obesity among children and help design interventions to impact children's food consumption behaviors. This study examined factors that are associated with the availability of healthy and unhealthy foods in children's home food environments (HFE). Data was collected from a random-digit-dial telephone survey of 1708 households, with at least one child between 3-18 years of age, located in five low-income New Jersey cities. HFE was assessed based on responses to a set of six items that measured availability of specific healthy and unhealthy foods in the respondent's home. These items contributed to construction of three HFE scales used as dependent variables in these analyses: healthy HFE, unhealthy HFE, and a ratio of healthy to unhealthy foods in the HFE. Independent variables included household socio-demographics, parental perceptions of their own weight and diet health, frequency of family meals, proximity to food outlets, and perception of access to healthy foods in the neighborhood food environment. Significant differences were observed in the HFE by race and ethnicity, with Non-Hispanic black children having fewer healthy foods and Non-Hispanic white children having more unhealthy food items available at home. Parents who reported being overweight or obese had a healthier HFE and those perceiving their own eating as healthy had more healthy and less unhealthy foods in the household. Food-secure households had more unhealthy compared to healthy foods at home. Households located farther from a supermarket had a greater number of unhealthy food items and a lower healthy/unhealthy food availability ratio. Parental perception of better access to fruits and vegetables and low-fat foods was associated with availability of a greater number of healthy food items at home. Overall, the HFE varied by parental and demographic characteristics, parental perceptions about the food environment and the actual features of the built neighborhood food environment. Dissertation/Thesis Berry, Andrea I. (Author) Ohri-Vachaspati, Punam (Advisor) Johnston, Carol (Committee member) Wharton, Christopher (Committee member) Arizona State University (Publisher) Nutrition Individual & family studies Public health childhood obesity community food environment home food environment household foods neighborhood food environment nutrition eng 153 pages M.S. Nutrition 2012 Masters Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.14894 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ All Rights Reserved 2012
collection NDLTD
language English
format Dissertation
sources NDLTD
topic Nutrition
Individual & family studies
Public health
childhood obesity
community food environment
home food environment
household foods
neighborhood food environment
nutrition
spellingShingle Nutrition
Individual & family studies
Public health
childhood obesity
community food environment
home food environment
household foods
neighborhood food environment
nutrition
Determinants of the Home Food Environment
description abstract: Determining the factors associated with the availability of healthy and unhealthy foods in the household may help in understanding the varying complexities that contribute to obesity among children and help design interventions to impact children's food consumption behaviors. This study examined factors that are associated with the availability of healthy and unhealthy foods in children's home food environments (HFE). Data was collected from a random-digit-dial telephone survey of 1708 households, with at least one child between 3-18 years of age, located in five low-income New Jersey cities. HFE was assessed based on responses to a set of six items that measured availability of specific healthy and unhealthy foods in the respondent's home. These items contributed to construction of three HFE scales used as dependent variables in these analyses: healthy HFE, unhealthy HFE, and a ratio of healthy to unhealthy foods in the HFE. Independent variables included household socio-demographics, parental perceptions of their own weight and diet health, frequency of family meals, proximity to food outlets, and perception of access to healthy foods in the neighborhood food environment. Significant differences were observed in the HFE by race and ethnicity, with Non-Hispanic black children having fewer healthy foods and Non-Hispanic white children having more unhealthy food items available at home. Parents who reported being overweight or obese had a healthier HFE and those perceiving their own eating as healthy had more healthy and less unhealthy foods in the household. Food-secure households had more unhealthy compared to healthy foods at home. Households located farther from a supermarket had a greater number of unhealthy food items and a lower healthy/unhealthy food availability ratio. Parental perception of better access to fruits and vegetables and low-fat foods was associated with availability of a greater number of healthy food items at home. Overall, the HFE varied by parental and demographic characteristics, parental perceptions about the food environment and the actual features of the built neighborhood food environment. === Dissertation/Thesis === M.S. Nutrition 2012
author2 Berry, Andrea I. (Author)
author_facet Berry, Andrea I. (Author)
title Determinants of the Home Food Environment
title_short Determinants of the Home Food Environment
title_full Determinants of the Home Food Environment
title_fullStr Determinants of the Home Food Environment
title_full_unstemmed Determinants of the Home Food Environment
title_sort determinants of the home food environment
publishDate 2012
url http://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.14894
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