To examine associations of various psychosocial factors with fruit andvegetable intake in African-American adults.

A cross-sectional survey of a population-based sample of 658African-Americans, aged 18–70 years, in North Carolina.Information was collected on diet-related psychosocial (predisposing,reinforcing and enabling) factors based on the PRECEDE (Predisposing,Reinforcing, and Enabling Constructs in Educational Diagnosis andEvaluation) planning framework; demographic, lifestyle and behaviouralcharacteristics, and fruit and vegetable intake.

The mean participant age was 43.9 years (standard deviation 11.6), 57% werefemale and 76% were overweight/obese. Participants expressed healthy beliefsregarding many of, but not all, the psychosocial factors. For example,although half of the respondents believed it is important to eat a diet highin fruits/vegetables, only 26% knew that ≥ 5 dailyservings are recommended. The strongest associations of the psychosocialfactors with fruit/vegetable intake were for predisposing factors (e.g.belief in the importance of a high fruit/vegetable diet and knowledge offruit/vegetable recommendations) and one reinforcing factor (socialsupport), with differences between the healthiest and least healthyresponses of 0.5–1.0 servings per day. There was evidence ofeffect modification by gender in associations between psychosocial factorsand fruit/vegetable consumption (e.g. self-efficacy was only significant inwomen), with higher intakes and generally healthier responses to thepsychosocial variables in women than men.

Interventions to increase fruit/vegetable intake in African-Americans may bemore effective if they focus primarily on predisposing factors, such asknowledge, self-efficacy and attitudes, but not to the exclusion ofreinforcing and enabling factors. The psychosocial factors that are targetedmay also need to be somewhat different for African-American men andwomen.