To study the associations between home food availability and dietary patterns among pre-school children.

Cross-sectional study in which parents of the participating children filled in an FFQ and reported how often they had certain foods in their homes. We derived dietary pattern scores using principal component analysis, and composite scores describing the availability of fruits and vegetables as well as sugar-enriched foods in the home were created for each participant. We used multilevel models to investigate the associations between availability and dietary pattern scores.

The DAGIS study, Finland.

The participants were 864 Finnish 3–6-year-old children recruited from sixty-six pre-schools. The analyses included 711 children with sufficient data.

We identified three dietary patterns explaining 16·7 % of the variance. The patterns were named ‘sweets-and-treats’ (high loadings of e.g. sweet biscuits, chocolate, ice cream), ‘health-conscious’ (high loadings of e.g. nuts, natural yoghurt, berries) and ‘vegetables-and-processed meats’ (high loadings of e.g. vegetables, cold cuts, fruit). In multivariate models, the availability of fruits and vegetables was inversely associated with the sweets-and-treats pattern (β=−0·05, P<0·01) and positively associated with the health-conscious (β=0·07, P<0·01) and vegetables-and-processed meats patterns (β=0·06, P<0·01). The availability of sugar-enriched foods was positively associated with the sweets-and-treats pattern (β=0·10, P<0·01) and inversely associated with the health-conscious pattern (β=−0·03, P<0·01).

Considering dietary patterns, the availability of sugar-enriched foods in the home seems to have a stronger role than that of fruits and vegetables. Parents should restrict the availability of unhealthy foods in the home.

Determining interventions to address food insecurity and poverty, as well as setting targets to be achieved in a specific time period have been a persistent challenge for development practitioners and decision makers. The present study aimed to assess the changes in food access and consumption at the household level after one-year implementation of an integrated food security intervention in three rural districts of Rwanda.

A before-and-after intervention study comparing Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) scores and household Food Consumption Scores (FCS) at baseline and after one year of programme implementation.

Three rural districts of Rwanda (Kayonza, Kirehe and Burera) where the Partners In Health Food Security and Livelihoods Program (FSLP) has been implemented since July 2013.

All 600 households enrolled in the FSLP were included in the study.

There were significant improvements (P<0·001) in HFIAS and FCS. The median decrease in HFIAS was 8 units (interquartile range (IQR) −13·0, −3·0) and the median increase for FCS was 4·5 units (IQR −6·0, 18·0). Severe food insecurity decreased from 78 % to 49 %, while acceptable food consumption improved from 48 % to 64 %. The change in HFIAS was significantly higher (P=0·019) for the poorest households.

Our study demonstrated that an integrated programme, implemented in a setting of extreme poverty, was associated with considerable improvements towards household food security. Other government and non-government organizations’ projects should consider a similar holistic approach when designing structural interventions to address food insecurity and extreme poverty.

To determine the effect of increasing fruit visibility, adding information and lowering price on fruit purchasing at a university cafeteria in Lima, Peru.

Quasi-experimental pilot study of a three-phase stepped intervention. In Phase 1, fruit was displayed >3 m from the point of purchase with no additional information. Phase 2 consisted in displaying the fruit near the point of purchase with added health and price information. Phase 3 added a 33 % price reduction. The duration of each phase was 3 weeks and phases were separated by 2-week breaks. Primary outcomes were total pieces of fruit and number of meals sold daily.

A university cafeteria in Lima, Peru.

Approximately 150 people, students and non-student adults, who purchased food daily. Twelve students participated in post-intervention interviews.

Fruit purchasing doubled from Phase 1 to Phase 3 (P<0·01) and remained significant after adjusting for the number of meals sold daily (P<0·05). There was no evidence of a difference in fruit sold between the other phases. Females purchased 100 % of the fruit in Phase 1, 82 % in Phase 2 and 67 % in Phase 3 (P<0·01). Males increased their purchasing significantly between Phase 1 and 3 (P<0·01). Non-student adults purchased more fruit with each phase (P<0·05) whereas students did not. Qualitatively, the most common reason for not purchasing fruit was a marked preference to buy unhealthy snack foods.

Promoting fruit consumption by product placement close to the point of purchase, adding health information and price reduction had a positive effect on fruit purchasing in a university cafeteria, especially in males and non-student adults.