Survey of factors associated with fruit and vegetable Consumption among high school student's using the Theory of Planned Behavior in Isfahan: 2011-2012

Sedentary lifestyles, along with diets low in fruits and vegetables, complex carbohydrates and high in fat and total energy are increasing among adolescents. These unhealthy behaviors associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Healthful dietary behaviors, such as fruit and vegetable consumption among adolescents had been reported as inadequate. The purpose of this study was to examine factors associated with the fruit and vegetable consumption among high school students applying the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to identify influential variable that be addressed through intervention effort. In a cross-sectional study, multiple-stage randomized sampling was used to select 648 high school students in Isfahan who completed a questionnaire assessing variables of Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB): attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavior control (PBC), intention, and fruit and vegetable consumption. The statistical analysis of the data included descriptive tests, bivariate correlations, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and liner regression. The mean age of participants was 15.63 (SE=1.02) years old. Average daily fruit and vegetable intake reported that about 1.75 and 1.36 per day for girls and 1.46 and 1.25 for boys. The results indicated that the theory performs very well for the explanation of intention and accounted for 43% of the variance. Perceived behavioral control was the strongest predictor of intention, followed by attitude and subjective norms. The findings of this paper show that promotion of students’ perceived behavioral control, and intention to high fruit and vegetable consumption should be priorities of any programs aimed at promoting healthy behaviors among students. It is also concluded that planned behavior theory the may be used as a framework for promoting healthy eating behaviors among adolescents.