Department of Mathematics and Statistics, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Soc Work Public Health. 2023 Apr 3;38(3):248-258. doi: 10.1080/19371918.2022.2134249. Epub 2022 Oct 15.
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of socioeconomic factors on fruit and vegetable consumption in the households of Pakistan. Secondary data were used from a national-level survey, i.e. "Household Integrated Income and Consumption Survey" (HIICS) 2015-2016 published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. A total of 11,187 households were included in the final analysis. Quantile regression models were applied to investigate the association between socioeconomic factors and the consumption of fruit and vegetable. More than half of the households in the sample did not meet the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommended criteria for fruit and vegetable consumption, which is 400 g/day/capita. According to the quantile regression model, household income is an important factor in increasing fruit and vegetable intake because an increase in income leads to a greater likelihood of spending on healthy and nutritious foods. The increased consumption of fruit and vegetable was caused by the household head's high education, which created multiple resources to increase income. Households in two provinces, i.e. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan, have a greater impact on fruit and vegetable consumption than other provinces due to natural resource availability. Household size and dependency ratio hurt the consumption of fruit and vegetable because women and children are not able to do work. These results are very useful because a better understanding of the socioeconomic characteristics associated with fruit and vegetable intake could improve the effectiveness of policies aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption and reducing the risk of chronic diseases.
本研究旨在探讨社会经济因素对巴基斯坦家庭水果和蔬菜消费的影响。使用了来自巴基斯坦统计局发布的全国性调查“家庭综合收入和消费调查”（HIICS）2015-2016 年的二手数据。最终分析共纳入了 11187 户家庭。应用分位数回归模型来研究社会经济因素与水果和蔬菜消费之间的关联。在样本中，超过一半的家庭没有达到世界卫生组织（WHO）推荐的水果和蔬菜消费标准，即每人每天 400 克。根据分位数回归模型，家庭收入是增加水果和蔬菜摄入量的一个重要因素，因为收入的增加导致更有可能花费在健康和营养丰富的食物上。家庭主妇的高教育水平增加了水果和蔬菜的消费，因为这创造了多种资源来增加收入。由于自然资源的可用性，开伯尔-普赫图赫瓦省和俾路支省这两个省份的家庭比其他省份对水果和蔬菜的消费有更大的影响。家庭规模和抚养比会损害水果和蔬菜的消费，因为妇女和儿童无法工作。这些结果非常有用，因为更好地了解与水果和蔬菜摄入相关的社会经济特征可以提高旨在增加水果和蔬菜消费和降低慢性病风险的政策的有效性。
