Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Social Norms and the Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables across New York City Neighborhoods

  • Published:
Journal of Urban Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with a lower risk of developing many chronic health conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. While five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day are recommended, only 50 % of New York City (NYC) residents consume two or more servings per day. In addition, there is wide variation in dietary behaviors across different neighborhoods in NYC. Using a validated agent-based model and data from 34 NYC neighborhoods, we simulate how a mass media and nutrition education campaign strengthening positive social norms about food consumption may potentially increase the proportion of the population who consume two or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day in NYC. We found that the proposed intervention results in substantial increases in daily fruit and vegetable consumption, but the campaign may be less effective in neighborhoods with relatively low education levels or a relatively high proportion of male residents. A well-designed, validated agent-based model has the potential to provide insights on the impact of an intervention targeting social norms before it is implemented and shed light on the important neighborhood factors that may affect the efficacy of the intervention.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

FIG. 1
FIG. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. World Health Organization. Diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases. Report of a Joint WHO/FAO Expert Consultation. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2003. http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/publications/trs916/en/gsfao_introduction.pdf. Accessed 21 Jan 2016.

  2. US Department of Health and Human Services, US Department of Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005.; 2005. http://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/clc/1762874. Accessed 27 Sept 2015.

  3. Dauchet L, Amouyel P, Hercberg S, Dallongeville J. Fruit and vegetable consumption and risk of coronary heart disease: a meta-analysis of cohort studies. J Nutr. 2006; 136(10): 2588–2593.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Montonen J, Knekt P, Härkänen T, et al. Dietary patterns and the incidence of type 2 diabetes. Am J Epidemiol. 2005; 161(3): 219–227.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Epstein LH, Gordy CC, Raynor HA, Beddome M, Kilanowski CK, Paluch R. Increasing fruit and vegetable intake and decreasing fat and sugar intake in families at risk for childhood obesity. Obes Res. 2001; 9(3): 171–178.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Daviglus ML, Liu K, Pirzada A, et al. Relationship of fruit and vegetable consumption in middle-aged men to medicare expenditures in older age: the Chicago Western Electric Study. J Am Diet Assoc. 2005; 105(11): 1735–1744.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Blanck HM, Gillespie C, Kimmons JE, Seymour JD, Serdula MK. Trends in fruit and vegetable consumption among US men and women, 1994–2005. Prev Chronic Dis. 2008;5(2). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2396974/. Accessed 27 Sept 2015.

  8. Casagrande SS, Wang Y, Anderson C, Gary TL. Have Americans increased their fruit and vegetable intake?: the trends between 1988 and 2002. Am J Prev Med. 2007; 32(4): 257–263.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Jack D, Neckerman K, Schwartz-Soicher O, et al. Socio-economic status, neighbourhood food environments and consumption of fruits and vegetables in New York City. Public Health Nutr. 2013; 16(07): 1197–1205.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Gordon C, Purciel-Hill M, Ghai NR, Kaufman L, Graham R, Van Wye G. Measuring food deserts in New York City’s low-income neighborhoods. Health Place. 2011; 17(2): 696–700.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Larson N, Story M. Barriers to equity in nutritional health for US children and adolescents: a review of the literature. Curr Nutr Rep. 2015; 4(1): 102–110.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Snyder LB, Hamilton MA, Mitchell EW, Kiwanuka-Tondo J, Fleming-Milici F, Proctor D. A meta-analysis of the effect of mediated health communication campaigns on behavior change in the United States. J Health Commun. 2004; 9(S1): 71–96.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Wakefield MA, Loken B, Hornik RC. Use of mass media campaigns to change health behaviour. Lancet. 2010; 376(9748): 1261–1271.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Harris JL, Bargh JA, Brownell KD. Priming effects of television food advertising on eating behavior. Health Psychol. 2009; 28(4): 404–413.

  15. Yun D, Silk KJ. Social norms, self-identity, and attention to social comparison information in the context of exercise and healthy diet behavior. Health Commun. 2011; 26(3): 275–285.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Dixon HG, Scully ML, Wakefield MA, White VM, Crawford DA. The effects of television advertisements for junk food versus nutritious food on children’s food attitudes and preferences. Soc Sci Med. 2007; 65(7): 1311–1323.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Gerbner G, Gross L, Morgan M, Signorielli N. Growing up with television: the cultivation perspective. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc; 1994. http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1994-97177-002. Accessed 19 Oct 2015.

  18. Gantz W, Schwartz N, Angelini JR, Rideout V. Food for thought: television food advertising to children in the United States. Menlo Park, California: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; 2007.

  19. Scully M, Wakefield M, Niven P, et al. Association between food marketing exposure and adolescents’ food choices and eating behaviors. Appetite. 2012; 58(1): 1–5.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Zimmerman FJ. Using marketing muscle to sell fat: the rise of obesity in the modern economy. Annu Rev Public Health. 2011; 32: 285–306.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Glanz K, Sallis JF, Saelens BE, Frank LD. Healthy nutrition environments: concepts and measures. Am J Health Promot. 2005; 19(5): 330–333.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Morland K, Wing S, Roux AD. The contextual effect of the local food environment on residents’ diets: the atherosclerosis risk in communities study. Am J Public Health. 2002; 92(11): 1761–1768.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Rose D, Richards R. Food store access and household fruit and vegetable use among participants in the US Food Stamp Program. Public Health Nutr. 2004; 7(08): 1081–1088.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Zenk SN, Lachance LL, Schulz AJ, Mentz G, Kannan S, Ridella W. Neighborhood retail food environment and fruit and vegetable intake in a multiethnic urban population. Am J Health Promot. 2009; 23(4): 255–264.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  25. Izumi BT, Zenk SN, Schulz AJ, Mentz GB, Wilson C. Associations between neighborhood availability and individual consumption of dark-green and orange vegetables among ethnically diverse adults in Detroit. J Am Diet Assoc. 2011; 111(2): 274–279.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Manski CF. Identification of endogenous social effects: the reflection problem. Rev Econ Stud. 1993; 60(3): 531–542.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. VanderWeele TJ. Sensitivity analysis for contagion effects in social networks. Sociol Methods Res. 2011; 40(2): 240–255.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  28. Zhang D, Giabbanelli PJ, Arah OA, Zimmerman FJ. Impact of different policies on unhealthy dietary behaviors in an urban adult population: an agent-based simulation model. Am J Public Health. 2014; 104(7): 1217–1222. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.301934.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  29. Zimmerman FJ. Habit, custom, and power: a multi-level theory of population health. Soc Sci Med. 2013; 80: 47–56.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. National Cancer Institute. Food Attitudes and Behaviors Survey. http://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/brp/fab/. Accessed 25 Sept 2015.

  31. Powell LM, Auld MC, Chaloupka FJ, O’Malley PM, Johnston LD. Access to fast food and food prices: relationship with fruit and vegetable consumption and overweight among adolescents. Adv Health Econ Health Serv Res. 2007; 17: 23–48.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Beydoun MA, Powell LM, Wang Y. The association of fast food, fruit and vegetable prices with dietary intakes among US adults: is there modification by family income? Soc Sci Med. 2008; 66(11): 2218–2229.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Moore LV, Roux AVD, Nettleton JA, Jacobs DR, Franco M. Fast-food consumption, diet quality, and neighborhood exposure to fast food the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis. Am J Epidemiol. 2009; 170(1): 29–36.

  34. United Hospital Fund. NYC UHF 34 Neighborhoods. http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/tracking/uhf34.pdf. Accessed 24 Sept 2015.

  35. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. New York City Community Health Survey (CHS), 2010. http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/data/chs-data.shtml. Accessed 24 Sept 2015.

  36. Eubank S, Guclu H, Kumar VA, et al. Modelling disease outbreaks in realistic urban social networks. Nature. 2004; 429(6988): 180–184.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Luke DA, Harris JK. Network analysis in public health: history, methods, and applications. Annu Rev Public Health. 2007; 28: 69–93.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Watts DJ, Strogatz SH. Collective dynamics of “small-world” networks. Nature. 1998; 393(6684): 440–442.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Giabbanelli PJ, Alimadad A, Dabbaghian V, Finegood DT. Modeling the influence of social networks and environment on energy balance and obesity. J Comput Sci. 2012; 3(1): 17–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. US Census Bureau. 2010 ZIP Code Business Patterns (ZBP). http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/. Accessed 25 Sept 2015.

  41. Glanz K, Sallis JF, Saelens BE, Frank LD. Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in stores (NEMS-S): development and evaluation. Am J Prev Med. 2007; 32(4): 282–289.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Backman DR, Gonzaga GC. Media, festival, farmers/flea markets and grocery store interventions lead to improved fruit and vegetable consumption for California Latinos. Oakland, CA: California Department of Health Services, Public Health Institute; 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Centola D. The spread of behavior in an online social network experiment. Science. 2010; 329(5996): 1194–1197.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Christakis NA, Fowler JH. The spread of obesity in a large social network over 32 years. N Engl J Med. 2007; 357(4): 370–379.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Wardle J, Haase AM, Steptoe A, Nillapun M, Jonwutiwes K, Bellisie F. Gender differences in food choice: the contribution of health beliefs and dieting. Ann Behav Med. 2004; 27(2): 107–116.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Zimmerman FJ, Shimoga SV. The effects of food advertising and cognitive load on food choices. BMC Public Health. 2014; 14(1): 342.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Health Innovation, The New York Academy of Medicine, 1216 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10029, USA

    Yan Li & José A. Pagán

  2. Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Yan Li & José A. Pagán

  3. Department of Health Policy and Management, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Donglan Zhang

  4. Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    José A. Pagán

Authors
  1. Yan Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Donglan Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. José A. Pagán
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to José A. Pagán.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, Y., Zhang, D. & Pagán, J.A. Social Norms and the Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables across New York City Neighborhoods. J Urban Health 93, 244–255 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-016-0028-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-016-0028-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation