More Frequent Food Shopping May Promote Fruit and Vegetable Intake: A Systematic Review

Measures of nutrition status and health for weight-inclusive patient care: A narrative review

In healthcare, weight is often equated to and used as a marker for health. In examining nutrition and health status, there are many more effective markers independent of weight. In this article, we review practical and emerging clinical applications of technologies and tools used to collect non-weight-related data in nutrition assessment, monitoring, and evaluation in the outpatient setting. The aim is to provide clinicians with new ideas about various types of data to evaluate and track in nutrition care.

Factors associated with fruit and vegetable consumption among Burmese refugees

OBJECTIVE

The Burmese population is one of the fast-growing refugee populations in the USA. This study investigated behavioural and environmental factors associated with fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption among Burmese refugees.

DESIGN

We conducted a cross-sectional interview survey in 2018-2019. The 24-h recall was used to assess dietary behaviour. Multivariable logistic regression models were constructed with meeting the daily FV consumption recommendation (two or more servings of fruits and three or more servings of vegetables) as the outcome variable. We selected socio-economics, nutritional knowledge, food shopping frequency, ethnicity of preferred food store owners, perceived neighbourhood food environment and network distance to preferred food stores as potential explanatory variables.

SETTING

Two Upstate New York counties.

PARTICIPANTS

Burmese refugees (n 173) aged ≥18 years.

RESULTS

Forty-five percentage of respondents met the daily FV consumption recommendation, and nearly all respondents identified ethnic (Burmese, Chinese/pan-Asian, or South Asian/halal) stores as their preferred stores to purchase FV. In the best-fit model, age (OR 1·08, 95 % CI (1·04, 1·12)) and shopping frequency (OR 1·51, 95 % CI (1·01, 2·26)) were positively associated, and network distance to preferred stores in kilometres (OR 0·81, 95 % CI (0·73, 0·90)) was negatively associated with meeting the daily FV consumption recommendation. No significant effect modifications by car ownership, poverty, length of stay in the USA and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participation were detected.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggested that having Asian ethnic food stores within a short, walkable distance from home and shopping at these stores often can promote healthy dietary behaviour among Burmese refugees.