Why do some socioeconomically disadvantaged women eat better than others? An investigation of the personal, social and environmental correlates of fruit and vegetable consumption

The purpose of this paper was to examine the contribution of individual, social and environmental factors to predicting fruit and vegetable consumption among women of low socioeconomic position (SEP). An Australian community sample of 355 women of low SEP provided survey data on sociodemographic information, diet (fruit and vegetable consumption), and various cognitive, behavioural, social and perceived environmental influences on healthy eating. Information on the availability and accessibility of major chain supermarkets and fruit and vegetable stores from participant's residence was collected through objective audits. Women who were older, dieting to lose weight, had a greater taste preference for fruit and perceived the cost of fruit to be lower were more likely to be high fruit consumers. Women who had a high BMI were more likely to be high vegetable consumers. Women who perceived a greater availability of healthy foods in their neighbourhoods were more likely to be high fruit and vegetable consumers. Strategies aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption among low SEP women should focus on modifying perceptions about the cost, availability and taste of fruits and vegetables. Tailoring nutrition interventions to accommodate differences in age, weight-control practices and weight status may also prove beneficial.

A cluster randomised trial of a telephone-based intervention for parents to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in their 3-to 5-year-old children : study protocol

Background: Inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption in childhood increases the risk of developing chronic disease. Despite this, a substantial proportion of children in developed nations, including Australia, do not consume sufficient quantities of fruits and vegetables. Parents are influential in the development of dietary habits of young children but often lack the necessary knowledge and skills to promote healthy eating in their children. The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of a telephone-based intervention for parents to increase the fruit and vegetable consumption of their 3- to 5-year-old children.
Methods/Design: The study, conducted in the Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia, employs a cluster randomised controlled trial design. Two hundred parents from 15 randomly selected preschools will be randomised to receive the intervention, which consists of print resources and four weekly 30-minute telephone support calls delivered by trained telephone interviewers. The calls will assist parents to increase the availability and accessibility of fruit and vegetables in the home, create supportive family eating routines and role-model fruit and vegetable consumption. A further two hundred parents will be randomly allocated to the control group and will receive printed nutrition information only. The primary outcome of the trial will be the change in the child's consumption of fruit and vegetables as measured by the fruit and vegetable subscale of the Children's Dietary Questionnaire. Pre-intervention and post-intervention parent surveys will be administered over the telephone. Baseline surveys will occur one to two
weeks prior to intervention delivery, with follow-up data collection calls occurring two, six, 12 and 18 months following baseline data collection.
Discussion: If effective, this telephone-based intervention may represent a promising public health strategy to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in childhood and reduce the risk of subsequent chronic disease.
Trial registration: Australian Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12609000820202

Investigating directionality for a media consumption construct : establishing the utility of confirmatory vanishing tetrad analysis

Purpose – When assessing the psychometric properties of measures and estimate relations among latent variables, many studies in the social sciences (including management and marketing) often fail to comprehensively appraise the directionality of indicants. Such failures can lead to model misspecification and inaccurate parameter estimates. The purpose of this paper is to apply a post hoc test called confirmatory vanishing tetrad analysis (CTA hereafter) to a single construct called mass media consumption information exposure, which antecedent studies conceptually posited to be a formative (causative) representation.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper analyses a consumer sample of 585 US respondents and applies the CTA test to a single construct by its inclusion in various matrices within a statistical analysis system-macro that takes into account nonnormal data characteristics. The matrices are derived from Mplus 5 through the estimation of a single-factor congeneric model. The CTA test calculates a test statistic similar to an asymptotic x2 distribution with degrees of freedom equal to the number of nonredundant tetrads tested.
Findings – The preliminary data analyses reveal that the data characteristics are nonnormal which is not uncommon in social research. The CTA results reveal that the reflective (emergent) item orientation cannot be fully ruled out as being the correct model representation. This is in contrast to prior theoretical conceptual work which would strongly support this construct being a formative representation.
Originality/value – Insofar as the authors are aware, there is no paper with a particular focus on how the CTA might not provide sound results with a demonstrated example. The paper makes a valuable contribution by discussing modelling philosophy and a procedure for directionality testing. The authors advocate the implementation of pre and post hoc tests as a key component of standard research practice.

Consumption of foods by young children with diagnosed campylobacter infection : a pilot case-control study

Objective: To determine whether parentally reported habitual intake of specific foods differed between children with diagnosed Campylobacter jejuni infection and children of a comparison group without diagnosed infection.

Design, setting and subjects: Information was collected from the parents or primary caregivers of South Australian children aged 1–5 years with diagnosed C. jejuni (cases, n=172) and an age- and gender-matched group of uninfected children (controls, n=173). Frequency of consumption of 106 food and drink items was determined for the preceding two months by food-frequency questionnaire. Four children in the control group had recorded diarrhoeal episodes during the assessment period and were excluded, so 169 responses were evaluated for this group. Information was gathered on possible confounders including socio-economic status. Response frequencies were classified into three levels of consumption (rarely, weekly or daily) and statistical comparison was made by frequency of consumption of foods versus the ‘rarely’ classification for cases and controls, respectively.

Results: Frequency of consumption of most foods, including starchy foods and fruits and vegetables, did not differ between cases and controls. However, reported consumption of eight food items (block and processed cheese (slices and spread), salami/fritz (a form of processed sausage), chicken nuggets, pasteurised milk, fish (canned or fresh) and hot French fries) was significantly higher by controls.

Conclusions: The hypothesis that reported consumption of starchy foods was lower by cases than by controls was not supported by the data. However, consumption of some processed and unprocessed foods was higher by controls. Some of these foods have established bactericidal actions in vitro that may indicate a possible mechanism for this apparent protection.

Influences on consumption of soft drinks and fast foods in adolescents

Soft drink and fast food are energy dense foodstuffs that are heavily marketed to adolescents, and are likely to be important in terms of risk of obesity. This study sought to examine the influences on soft drink and fast food consumption among adolescents as part of a cross-sectional survey of 2,719 adolescents (aged 11-16) from 93 randomly selected schools in New South Wales, Australia. Students provided information on soft drink and fast food consumption, and responded to statements examining influences over consumption. Over half of the boys and more than one third of the girls reported drinking soft drink daily, and consumption peaked in Grade 8 students. A quarter of students reported choosing soft drinks instead of water or milk, and around 40% agreed that soft drink was usually available in their homes. Availability in the home and drinking soft drinks with meals was most strongly associated with consumption in all age groups. Fast food consumption was higher among boys than girls in all age groups. Convenience and value for money yielded the strongest associations with fast food
consumption in boys, while preferring fast food to meals at home and preferring to “upsize” meals were most strongly associated with consumption in girls. Interventions to reduce consumption of soft drinks should target availability in both the home and school environment by removing soft drinks and replacing them with more nutritive beverages. Fast food outlets should be encouraged to provide a greater range of healthy and competitively priced options in reasonable portions.

A cluster randomized controlled trial of a telephone-based parent intervention to increase preschoolers’ fruit and vegetable consumption

Background: Inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with increased chronic disease risk and represents a considerable global health burden. Despite evidence that dietary habits track from early childhood, there are few published trials of interventions attempting to increase preschoolers’ fruit and vegetable consumption.

Objective: The Healthy Habits trial aimed to assess the efficacy of a telephone-based intervention for parents to increase the fruit and vegetable consumption in their 3–5-y-old children.

Design: A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted involving 394 parents of children aged 3–5 y recruited through local preschools. Parents allocated to the intervention received printed resources plus four 30-min telephone calls targeting aspects of the home food environment associated with children's fruit and vegetable consumption. Parents allocated to the control group received generic printed nutrition information. Children's fruit and vegetable consumption was assessed by using the Fruit and Vegetable Subscale of the Children's Dietary Questionnaire, which was administered via telephone interview at baseline and 2 and 6 mo later.

Results: Analysis of all available data showed that children's fruit and vegetable scores were significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group at 2 mo (P < 0.001) and at 6 mo (P = 0.021). Sensitivity analysis using baseline observation carried forward showed an intervention effect at 2 mo (P = 0.008) but not at 6 mo (P = 0.069).

Conclusions: Telephone-delivered parent interventions may be an effective way of increasing children's fruit and vegetable consumption in the short term. Further investigation to determine whether the intervention effect is maintained in the longer term is recommended.

Does the choice of neighbourhood supermarket access measure influence associations with individual-level fruit and vegetable consumption? A case study from Glasgow

Background
Previous studies have provided mixed evidence with regards to associations between food store access and dietary outcomes. This study examines the most commonly applied measures of locational access to assess whether associations between supermarket access and fruit and vegetable consumption are affected by the choice of access measure and scale.

Method
Supermarket location data from Glasgow, UK (n = 119), and fruit and vegetable intake data from the 'Health and Well-Being' Survey (n = 1041) were used to compare various measures of locational access. These exposure variables included proximity estimates (with different points-of-origin used to vary levels of aggregation) and density measures using three approaches (Euclidean and road network buffers and Kernel density estimation) at distances ranging from 0.4 km to 5 km. Further analysis was conducted to assess the impact of using smaller buffer sizes for individuals who did not own a car. Associations between these multiple access measures and fruit and vegetable consumption were estimated using linear regression models.

Results
Levels of spatial aggregation did not impact on the proximity estimates. Counts of supermarkets within Euclidean buffers were associated with fruit and vegetable consumption at 1 km, 2 km and 3 km, and for our road network buffers at 2 km, 3 km, and 4 km. Kernel density estimates provided the strongest associations and were significant at a distance of 2 km, 3 km, 4 km and 5 km. Presence of a supermarket within 0.4 km of road network distance from where people lived was positively associated with fruit consumption amongst those without a car (coef. 0.657; s.e. 0.247; p0.008).

Conclusions
The associations between locational access to supermarkets and individual-level dietary behaviour are sensitive to the method by which the food environment variable is captured. Care needs to be taken to ensure robust and conceptually appropriate measures of access are used and these should be grounded in a clear a priori reasoning.

Characteristics of participants in Australia's Get Healthy telephone-based lifestyle information and coaching service : reaching disadvantaged communities and those most at need

To address increasing rates of overweight and obesity, a population-based telephone intervention was introduced in New South Wales, Australia. The Get Healthy Information and Coaching Service® (GHS) offered participants a 6-month coaching program or detailed self-help information. Determining the population reach of GHS is of public health importance to ensure that the program reaches disadvantaged groups. This paper describes the socio-demographic and risk profile of participants (n = 4828) in the first 18 months of operations, determines how representative they are of the population, assesses changes in participants’ socio-demographic profile and compares ‘information-only’ and ‘coaching’ participants. The results show that GHS users are representative of the adult population in relation to education, employment status, Aboriginal status, fruit and vegetable consumption and alcohol use. However, more female, middle-aged, English-speaking, rural and socially disadvantaged adults participated in GHS. Coaching Participants were more likely to be overweight and to be ex-smokers than the general population. There was substantial variability in GHS recruitment, when mass-reach television advertising was used, participants enrolled from a major city and from more disadvantaged communities. The GHS has broader population reach than many local interventions, but further efforts are needed to increase reach by Aboriginal communities, other minorities and men.

Framework for a Residential Energy Information System (REMIS) to promote energy efficient behaviour in residential energy end users

Previous studies on residential energy end use behavior reported significant reduction in energy end use of 7% to 24% when feedback is used to modify behavior in an energy efficient manner. However, most feedback systems investigated in previous studies have not benefited from advanced information systems (IS). IS can shape energy efficiency behavior by providing real-time feedback on energy consumption, cost and environmental impact. Such systems represent a new and less-researched subfield of energy informatics. This paper provides a conceptual framework for showing the potential use of IS to modify residential energy use behavior towards better energy efficiency. The framework builds on research in residential energy end use, in particular energy end use behavioral model. It provides conceptual inputs for a blue-print to develop a residential energy management information system (REMIS) and also highlights the use of new information and communications technologies (ICT) that had not been widely used, setting the grounds for further research in this area.

A data mining framework for electricity consumption analysis from meter data

This paper presents a novel data mining framework for the exploration and extraction of actionable knowledge from data generated by electricity meters. Although a rich source of information for energy consumption analysis, electricity meters produce a voluminous, fast-paced, transient stream of data that conventional approaches are unable to address entirely. In order to overcome these issues, it is important for a data mining framework to incorporate functionality for interim summarization and incremental analysis using intelligent techniques. The proposed Incremental Summarization and Pattern Characterization (ISPC) framework demonstrates this capability. Stream data is structured in a data warehouse based on key dimensions enabling rapid interim summarization. Independently, the IPCL algorithm incrementally characterizes patterns in stream data and correlates these across time. Eventually, characterized patterns are consolidated with interim summarization to facilitate an overall analysis and prediction of energy consumption trends. Results of experiments conducted using the actual data from electricity meters confirm applicability of the ISPC framework.

Energy efficient information discovery approach for range queries in multi-dimensional WSNs

Multidimensional WSNs are deployed in complex environments to sense and collect data relating to multiple attributes (multi-dimensional data). Such networks present unique challenges to data dissemination, data storage and in-network query processing (information discovery). Recent algorithms proposed for such WSNs are aimed at achieving better energy efficiency and minimizing latency. This creates a partitioned network area due to the overuse of certain nodes in areas which are on the shortest or closest or path to the base station or data aggregation points which results in hotspots nodes. In this paper, we propose a time-based multi-dimensional, multi-resolution storage approach for range queries that balances the energy consumption by balancing the traffic load as uniformly as possible. Thus ensuring a maximum network lifetime. We present simulation results to show that the proposed approach to information discovery offers significant improvements on information discovery latency compared with current approaches. In addition, the results prove that the Quality of Service (QoS) improvements reduces hotspots thus resulting in significant network-wide energy saving and an increased network lifetime.

Cross-continental comparison of national food consumption survey methods—A narrative review

Food consumption surveys are performed in many countries. Comparison of results from those surveys across nations is difficult because of differences in methodological approaches. While consensus about the preferred methodology associated with national food consumption surveys is increasing, no inventory of methodological aspects across continents is available. The aims of the present review are (1) to develop a framework of key methodological elements related to national food consumption surveys, (2) to create an inventory of these properties of surveys performed in the continents North- America, South-America, Asia and Australasia, and (3) to discuss and compare these methodological properties cross-continentally. A literature search was performed using a fixed set of search terms in different databases. The inventory was completed with all accessible information from all retrieved publications and corresponding authors were requested to provide additional information where missing. Surveys from ten individual countries, originating from four continents are listed in the inventory. The results are presented according to six major aspects of food consumption surveys. The most common dietary intake assessment method used in food consumption surveys worldwide is the 24-HDR (24 h dietary recall), occasionally administered repeatedly, mostly using interview software. Only three countries have incorporated their national food consumption surveys into continuous national health and nutrition examination surveys.

A study and a directory of energy consumption data sets of buildings

Energy consumption data are required to perform analysis, modelling, evaluation, and optimisation of energy usage in buildings. While a variety of energy consumption data sets have been examined and reported in the literature, there is a lack of a comprehensive categorisation and analysis of the available data sets. In this study, an overview of energy consumption data of buildings is provided. Three common strategies for generating energy consumption data, i.e., measurement, survey, and simulation, are described. A number of important characteristics pertaining to each strategy and the resulting data sets are discussed. In addition, a directory of energy consumption data sets of buildings is developed. The data sets are collected from either published papers or energy related organisations. The main contributions of this study include establishing a resource pertaining to energy consumption data sets and providing information related to the characteristics and availability of the respective data sets; therefore facilitating and promoting research activities in energy consumption data analysis.

Identifying consumers who resist looking for information

Entities like advertisers and public service agencies encounter consumers who are
resistant to searching for information. Resistance to information-search is a latent
phenomenon that has received little attention from marketers (Case, 2007; Levy, Webster & Kerin, 1983).This is perhaps due to difficulties associated with finding and identifying those who are resistant to looking; those who don’t search do not leave a detectable mark. These consumers miss out on information that may help them make better consumption decisions. They also remain uninformed about crucial broadcasts like product recalls and warnings (Capon & Lutz, 1979).

Energy consumption and output: time series evidence from non-OECD developing countries

Statistically significant association between energy consumption and economic growth is now well established in the literature. However, it still remains an unsettled issue whether economic growth is the cause or effect of energy consumption. The importance of identifying the direction of causality emanates from its relevance in national policy-making issues regarding energy conservation. Energy conservationissue is more important when energy acts as a contributing factor in economic growth than when it is used as a result of higher economic growth. In this backdrop, it is justified to search causal relationship between energy consumption and national output (GDP) of those countries that are expected to have higher energy consumption in future. Evidence shows that countries classified as non-OECD Asia will have the highest growth in energy consumption (3.7 percent) over the period 2003-2030. This forecasted energy consumption in these countries will have significant policy implication in the area of energy conservation. Hence, the present paper attempts to identify the direction of causality between energy consumption and output in the context of six major energy dependent non-OECD Asian countries.However, since the traditional bivariate approach suffers from omitted variable problems (Stern 1993, Masih and Masih, 1996 and Asafu-Adjaye, 2000), this paper employs a trivariate demand side approach consisting of energy consumption, income and prices. The countries selected for this purpose are Bangladesh, China, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Thailand. Moreover, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) data of 2005, these six countries contribute 81.35% of the energyconsumption by all non-OECD Asian countries (aggregate energy consumption of 2005 by all non-OECD Asian countries is 113.60 quadrillion BTU while for these six countries alone the consumption is 92.42 quadrillion BTU).