Impact of social support on the dietary behaviors of international college students in the United States

The Role of Household Social Support and Undermining in Dietary Change

BACKGROUND

US adults find it challenging to meet disease prevention dietary recommendations and may participate in interventions to improve dietary quality. Social influences outside of the intervention, including level of social support and undermining of healthy eating in the home, may affect an individual's dietary intake. This secondary analysis examined (1) changes in household social support and undermining of healthy eating across a dietary intervention with household member participation and (2) the relationship between changes in social influences and dietary intake.

METHOD

Adults (N = 62) with low adherence to cancer prevention dietary recommendations recruited from the Philadelphia area participated in a 20-week dietary intervention focused on psychoeducation about NCI dietary recommendations and skills for behavior change. Half of the participants were also randomized to have an adult household member participate in some intervention contacts with them. Participants completed measures of social support and undermining of healthy eating and dietary intake at baseline and post-treatment (20 weeks).

RESULTS

Fifty-two participants had available data for baseline and post-treatment (i.e., completers). Household social support of healthy eating increased more among participants randomized to have household involvement in the intervention with a medium effect (η2 = .11). Fruit and vegetable intake significantly increased among participants with meaningful increases in household social support with a large effect (η2 = .37). There were no significant interaction effects of change in household undermining and time on change in dietary intake.

CONCLUSION

Dietary interventions with a household support component show promise for improving household social support and may impact magnitude of dietary change.

Revisiting the Link between Workplace Support for Families, Family Support, Diet Quality, and Satisfaction with Food-Related Life in the Second Year of the Pandemic

The main objective of this study was to examine the actor and partner effects between Perceived Workplace Support for Families (PWSFs) and family support (PFS), diet quality, and satisfaction with food-related life (SWFoL) in households with both parents working and adolescents, along with the role of the three family members' diet quality as a mediator. During the second year of the pandemic in Chile, 860 dual-earner parents of different sexes and their adolescent child (average age 13 years, with 50.7% being male) were recruited from two cities. Parents responded to a measure of PWSFs and the Perceived Family Support Scale. Mothers, fathers, and adolescents answered the Adapted Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) and the satisfaction with food-related life Scale. The examination employed the mediation Actor-Partner Interdependence Model and structural equation modeling for the analyses. Results showed that mothers' PWSFs improved their and their teenage children's SWFoL, while fathers' PWSFs only improved their SWFoL. The mothers' PFS improved their and the fathers' diet quality while enhancing their SWFoL and the adolescents' SWFoL. The fathers' PFS enhanced their and the adolescents' SWFoL. The mothers' PFS also indirectly enhanced their and the fathers' SWFoL via each parent's diet quality. Each family member's diet quality was positively related to their SWFoL, while mothers' diet quality was positively related to the fathers' SWFoL. These results imply that resources obtained by parents from PFS positively impact the SWFoL of the three family members through different mechanisms. They also highlight the importance of maternal family support for SWFoL during the pandemic.

Sex-Specific Dietary Patterns and Social Behaviour in Low-Risk Individuals

Dietary and social behaviour are non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. Non-communicable diseases are related to dietary patterns. To date, little is known about how social behaviour is associated with health-related dietary patterns, and, in particular, we lack information about the role of sex within this possible relation. Our cross-sectional study investigated associations between dietary patterns and social behaviour including personality traits (self-control, risk taking), political preferences (conservative, liberal, ecological, social) and altruism (willingness to donate, club membership, time discounting) in men and women. We performed sex-specific correlation analyses to investigate relationships between dietary patterns based on self-reported protocols from the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) and the validated Healthy Eating Index (HEI) from the EPIC Study and a self-reported social behaviour questionnaire. In linear regression models, we analysed associations between dietary and social behaviour patterns. Sex differences were measured by interaction analysis for each social behaviour item. The study sample consisted of N = 102 low-risk individuals. The median age of the study participants was 62.4 (25th/75th percentile 53.6, 69.1) years, and 26.5% were women. Analyses showed that a lower HEI score was correlated with a higher BMI in both women and men. MEDAS and HEI showed a positive correlation with each other in men. In men, a higher MEDAS showed a positive correlation when they estimated their ability as high, with the same for self-control and preference for ecological politics and MEDAS. A weak negative correlation has been shown between men with a preference for conservative politics and MEDAS. HEI showed a positive significant correlation with age in men. Male participants without club membership scored significantly higher in the HEI compared to non-members. A negative correlation was shown for time discounting in men. Linear regression models showed positive associations between preferences for ecological-oriented politics and nutrition for both HEI and MEDAS. No sex interactions were observed. We faced a few limitations, such as a small sample size, particularly for women, and a limited age spectrum in a European cohort. However, assuming that individuals with a preference for ecological-oriented politics act ecologically responsibly, our findings indicate that ecological behaviour in low-risk individuals might determine, at least in part, a healthy diet. Furthermore, we observed dietary patterns such as higher alcohol consumption in men or higher intake of butter, margarine and cream in women that indicate that women and men may have different needs for nutritional improvement. Thus, further investigations are needed to better understand how social behaviour affects nutrition, which could help to improve health. Our findings have the potential to inform researchers and practitioners who investigate the nature of the relationship between social behaviour and dietary patterns to implement strategies to create first-stage changes in health behaviour for individuals with a low cardiovascular risk profile.