Robinson-Oghogho Joelle N, Palmer Anne, Davey-Rothwell Melissa, Thorpe Roland J
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health Behavior and Society, Baltimore, MD, United States.
Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, Baltimore, MD, United States.
Prev Med Rep. 2023 Aug 25;36:102382. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102382. eCollection 2023 Dec.
Vegetable consumption is known to reduce the risk of various chronic health conditions. Yet a small percentage of US adults consume enough vegetables to meet national dietary guidelines. The SouthEats community-led meal-kit service was developed in Washington DC to address known barriers to healthy eating and vegetable consumption among middle- and low-income households.
Using a series of online surveys, we conducted a pilot study to provide preliminary information on the influence of SouthEats on vegetable consumption and factors known to influence vegetable consumption. Wilcoxon matched-pair sign ranked tests were used to examine changes in key outcomes between baseline, midpoint and endpoint surveys.
Among SouthEats customers who completed all pilot study surveys (n = 23) there was a significant decrease in the median amount of time spent on meal prep between baseline and midpoint. Between baseline and endpoint, participants also indicated increased feelings that they had enough time to meet their needs including cooking healthfully. Overall vegetable and fruit and vegetable consumption increased between the baseline and midpoint but then decreased between the midpoint and endpoint survey periods. However, there were no statistically significant changes in the outcomes of home eating behaviors, perceptions of neighborhood healthy food access, vegetable self-efficacy, or vegetable consumption.
Our results provide some preliminary evidence suggesting that the SouthEats meal-kit service could help reduce the amount of time spent on cooking, reduce feelings of time scarcity, and increase vegetable consumption in the short-term. Further research exploring this topic will require a larger study sample.
众所周知，食用蔬菜可降低患各种慢性健康问题的风险。然而，只有一小部分美国成年人摄入足够的蔬菜以达到国家饮食指南的要求。“南方饮食”（SouthEats）是一项由社区主导的送餐服务，在华盛顿特区推出，旨在解决中低收入家庭在健康饮食和蔬菜消费方面已知的障碍。
我们通过一系列在线调查进行了一项试点研究，以提供关于“南方饮食”对蔬菜消费的影响以及已知影响蔬菜消费的因素的初步信息。使用Wilcoxon配对符号秩检验来检查基线、中点和终点调查之间关键结果的变化。
在完成所有试点研究调查的“南方饮食”客户中（n = 23），从基线到中点，准备饭菜所花费的时间中位数显著减少。从基线到终点，参与者还表示，他们感觉有更多时间来满足自己的需求，包括健康烹饪。总体而言，蔬菜以及水果和蔬菜的消费量在基线到中点之间有所增加，但在中点到终点调查期间有所下降。然而，家庭饮食行为、对社区健康食品供应的看法、蔬菜自我效能感或蔬菜消费量的结果没有统计学上的显著变化。
我们的结果提供了一些初步证据，表明“南方饮食”送餐服务有助于减少烹饪时间，减轻时间稀缺感，并在短期内增加蔬菜消费量。进一步探索这一主题的研究将需要更大的研究样本。
