Habit is the Bridge between Intention and Behavior: A Look at Fruit and Vegetable Consumption among Low-Income Older Adults

Abstract

Objective

To examine the influence of habit and theory of planned behavior (TPB) variables in predicting low-income older adults’ fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption.

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Setting

A city in the southeast United States.

Participants

A total of 372 low-income older adults participated in this study.

Results

Participants completed a validated survey measuring TPB variables (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and intention), F&V intake using the Block Dietary Fruit-Vegetable Screener, and self-reported habit index to measure F&V consumption. Perceived behavioral control was the largest factor influencing intention to consume F&V, followed by attitude and subjective norm. In addition, there was a significant interaction between habit strength and intention, such that intention influenced F&V consumption only among individuals with average or higher habit strength.

Conclusions

Findings from this study suggest health promotion programs aimed at increasing F&V intake among low-income older adults should focus on establishing F&V intake as a habit so that an individual's intentions to consume F&V can be transformed into actual F&V intake. Also, emphasizing how to overcome potential barriers would improve low-income older adults’ actual F&V intake by increasing their sense of control over consuming F&V.

Keywords:

• Low income older adults
• theory of planned behavior
• habit
• fruit and vegetable

Ethical standards disclosure

This study was conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki and all procedures involving human subjects were approved by The University of Alabama Human Research Ethics Committee. Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects.

Author contributions

SE Jung and YH Shin designed the study. S Kim analyzed the data. All authors (SE Jung, YH Shin, S Kim, J Hermann and R Dougherty) contributed to the writing, interpretation of the data, and editing the manuscript critically for important intellectual content.

Disclosure statement

No authors report a conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the Research Grants Committee (RGC) though the Office of the Vice President for Research Economic Development at The University of Alabama.