Food Insecurity Experiences Predict Children’s Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in the USA
Table 1
Selected variables for children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten observed in spring 2004 and 2007a. (Mean values and standard deviations for 5670 subjects).
Variable
2004
2007
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Fruit servings per week (0–28)
7.53
7.76
7.21
6.77
Green salad servings per week (0–28)
2.18
3.82
2.54
3.54
Carrots servings per week (0–28)
2.94
5.38
1.90
3.37
Potatoes servings per week (0–28)
1.79
3.06
2.02
2.83
Other vegetables servings per week (0–28)
5.24
6.25
5.07
5.16
Very low food security (0-1)
0.017
0.019
Low food security (0-1)
0.052
0.045
BMI (kg/m2)
20.37
4.57
22.58
5.13
Physical exercise >20 min (d/week)
3.70
1.82
4.68
1.94
Watch television (min/d)
139.85
69.29
212.86
169.01
Siblings ()
1.52
1.07
1.45
1.07
Household size ()
4.52
1.24
4.44
1.26
Parental education level (1–9)
5.37
1.94
5.42
1.94
Household income category (1–13)
9.01
2.93
9.33
2.79
Boys (%)
48.50
County-level characteristicsb
Unemployment rate (%)
6.06
2.03
4.69
1.19
Food stamp recipients (per capita)
0.08
0.05
0.09
0.06
Income ($ per capita)
32,105
9241
38,133
11681
Very low food security is defined as 8–18 affirmative responses and low food security is defined as 3–7 affirmative responses on the USDA Household Food Security Survey Module. County-level unemployment rate data are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Food stamp recipient data are from the County-Level Food Stamp Recipient File, U.S. Bureau of the Census. County-level per capita income data are from the Regional Economic Information System, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Economic Measurement Division.
