Demographic and psychosocial factors associated with increased fruit and vegetable consumption among smokers in public housing enrolled in a randomized trial.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the demographic and psychosocial factors associated with increased fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption among smokers residing in public housing.

DESIGN

Cluster randomized trial of 20 public housing developments (HDs). Ten housing developments were randomly assigned to a FV intervention and 10 to a smoking cessation intervention.

PRIMARY OUTCOME

Change in daily FV intake over the past 7 days at 8 weeks postbaseline.

RESULTS

Above the effect of treatment, baseline confidence for vegetable consumption (model coefficient = 0.19, SE = 0.07, p = .01), decreased barriers (model coefficient = -0.12, SE = 0.04, p = .002) and increased agency (model coefficient = 0.08, SE = 0.04, p = .03) were significantly associated with week 8 FV consumption.

CONCLUSIONS

Although the intervention produced significant change in FV consumption, the majority of individual psychosocial factors were not associated with this change. Future studies examining the dynamic interaction between interventions and individual, social, and environmental factors are needed to more fully explain dietary change among public housing residents.