Brescia Food and Nutritional Sciences Publications

Perceptions and Use of Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating by Grocery Shoppers in London, Ontario

Alicia C. Garcia et al. — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 19:58:11 PDT

Limited information exists on grocery shoppers' perceptions and use of Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating. The main objective of this study was to examine grocery shoppers' perceptions and use of the food guide in London, Ontario. The guide tearsheet and a self-administered questionnaire about food-buying practices were distributed to 2,000 food shoppers in ten London supermarkets. The response rate was 572 of 2,000 shoppers, or 29%; detailed results are reported in a separate paper. Four months later, a follow-up survey on the perceptions and use of the food guide was conducted through the use of a mailed questionnaire. (Both questionnaires had been pretested.) The response rate to the follow-up survey was 21% (118 of 572 participants). This survey revealed that 79% found the tearsheet useful or very useful. A majority indicated they would recommend its use to others. Over 75% reported awareness of the messages and almost two-thirds indicated that they had made some changes in their eating habits. About 40% provided helpful suggestions for revisions of the guide. The information obtained from this study will help health educators better understand shoppers' perceptions about the usefulness of Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating. The guide must be made more accessible, and shoppers' concerns about healthy food choices must be addressed.

Factors Influencing Food-buying Practices of Grocery Shoppers in London, Ontario

Leonard A. Piché et al. — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 19:58:11 PDT

We need to understand better the reasons why people choose to buy the foods that they do. The main objective of this study was to obtain information on some of the factors that influence food-buying practices of grocery shoppers in London, Ontario. For this study, a copy of Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating tearsheet and a self-administered seven-item postcard-style questionnaire were distributed to 2,000 grocery shoppers in ten London A&P supermarkets; 29% of receptive shoppers (572 of 2,000) completed the survey. Grocery shoppers indicated that price, freshness and health considerations were the top three factors considered important when buying food. Average food expenditure for a family of three was approximately $103 per week. A majority of respondents (55%) wanted more information on healthy food choices. The results may provide information for health educators to understand better the factors that influence grocery shoppers food-buying practices. Knowledge of these factors may also help health educators design nutrition information and health promotion interventions at point-of-purchase outlets that could be aimed at influencing more grocery shoppers to take steps toward healthier food-buying behaviours.

Screen-related Sedentary Behaviors: Children's and Parents' Attitudes, Motivations, and Practices

Meizi He et al. — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:27:14 PST

OBJECTIVE: To investigate school-aged children's and parents' attitudes, social influences, and intentions toward excessive screen-related sedentary behavior (S-RSB).

DESIGN: A cross-sectional study using a survey methodology.

SETTING: Elementary schools in London, Ontario, Canada.

PARTICIPANTS: All grades 5 and 6 students, their parents, and their teachers in the participating schools were invited to voluntarily participate; 508 student-parent pairs completed the surveys.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Children's screen-related behaviors.

ANALYSIS: Data were analyzed using the Independent Student t test to compare differences of continuous variables and the chi-square test to test for differences of categorical variables.

RESULTS: Children spent 3.3 +/- 0.15 (standard error) hours per day engaged in screen-related activities. Entertainment, spending time with family, and boredom were cited as the top 3 reasons for television viewing and video game playing. Compared to "low-screen users" (ie, < 2 hours/day), "high-screen users" (ie, >or= 2 hours/day) had a less negative attitude toward excessive S-RSB and perceived loosened parental rules on screen use. Parents of high-screen users had a less negative attitude toward children's S-RSB, had fewer rules about their children's screen use, and were more likely to be sedentary themselves.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Intervention strategies aimed at reducing S-RSB should involve both parents and children and should focus on fostering behavioral changes and promoting parental role modeling.

Understanding Screen-related Sedentary Behavior and Its Contributing Factors among School-aged Children: A Social-ecologic Exploration

Meizi He et al. — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:40:32 PDT

Purpose: To explore the factors that contribute to children's screen-related sedentary (S-RS) behaviors.

Settings: Elementary schools.

Subjects: A random sample of children in grades five and six and their parents.

Measures: The outcome measure was children's S-RS activity level measured by a self-administered questionnaire. A full spectrum of potential contributing factors for children's S-RS behaviors was obtained through surveys. Multilevel linear regression methods were used to determine the associations between these factors and children's screen time (hours per day) and results were expressed as regression coefficients (g).

Results: Of 955 child-parent pairs in 14 participating schools, 508 pairs (53%) completed the surveys. At an intrapersonal level, protective factors included being a girl (g = -.71); belonging to a sports team inside (g = -.56) or outside (g = -.49) of school; having a negative attitude toward S-RS activities (g = -.13); and having a positive attitude toward physical activity (g = .48). At the interpersonal and social levels, parental leisure S-RS behaviors (g = .32) were positively associated, whereas strict parental rules on computer use (g = -.27) and family income (g = -.32) were inversely correlated with S-RS behavior. At the environmental level, the presence of TVs in children's bedrooms (g = .44) and owning videogame devices (g = .58) increased the risk of S-RS behaviors, whereas after school programs (g = - .86) and schools' participation in the Turn Off the Screen Week campaign (g = -.91) decreased the risk.

Conclusions: Public health interventions should target multilevel factors, including increasing children's awareness, promoting parental involvement in healthy lifestyle pursuits, and creating less screenogenic environments.