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Self-Efficacy as a Mediator of the Relationship Between the Perceived Food Environment and Healthy Eating in a Low Income Population in Los Angeles County

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Abstract

While previous studies have described psychosocial and environmental factors that contribute to healthy eating, much remains unknown about the interactions between them. We assessed the relationship between the perceived food environment, self-efficacy and fruit and vegetable consumption, using data from a sample of racially diverse, low-income adult clientele of five public health centers in Los Angeles County (n = 1503). We constructed a negative binomial regression model to examine the association between perceived food environment and the number of fruits and vegetables consumed. For every one point increase on the perceived food environment scale, individuals ate about 5 % more fruits and vegetables (95 % CI 1.007, 1.089), controlling for other covariates. Self-efficacy was shown to be a significant mediator (mediated effect = 0.010; 95 % CI 0.002, 0.020), accounting for 22.9 % of the effect. Efforts to increase access to healthy options may not only improve eating behaviors, but also influence individuals’ beliefs that they can eat healthfully.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Carol Aneshensel from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Health for her support and contributions to this manuscript and staff from the Institute for Digital Research and Evaluation at the University of California, Los Angeles for their statistical support. This work was supported in part by a grant from the NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Science UCLA CTSI (TL1TR000121, Gase) and a cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (3U58DP002485-01S1, Kuo).

Conflict of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Ethical standard

All procedures involving human subjects were approved by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Institutional Review Board. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 3530 Wilshire Blvd, 8th Floor, Los Angeles, CA, 90010, USA

    Lauren N. Gase & Tony Kuo

  2. Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Lauren N. Gase & Beth Glenn

  3. Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Center for Cancer Prevention and Control Research, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Beth Glenn

  4. Department of Family Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

    Tony Kuo

Authors
  1. Lauren N. Gase
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  2. Beth Glenn
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  3. Tony Kuo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lauren N. Gase.

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Gase, L.N., Glenn, B. & Kuo, T. Self-Efficacy as a Mediator of the Relationship Between the Perceived Food Environment and Healthy Eating in a Low Income Population in Los Angeles County. J Immigrant Minority Health 18, 345–352 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-015-0186-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-015-0186-0

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