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. 2022 Sep 8;25(12):1-11.
doi: 10.1017/S1368980022001860. Online ahead of print.

Socio-economic inequalities in the consumption of fruits and vegetables in Peru between 2014 and 2019

Akram Hernández-Vásquez  1 , Fabriccio J Visconti Lopez  2 , Rodrigo Vargas-Fernández  3
Affiliations

Socio-economic inequalities in the consumption of fruits and vegetables in Peru between 2014 and 2019

Akram Hernández-Vásquez et al. Public Health Nutr. .

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the prevalence and socio-economic inequalities in adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables in Peru between 2014 and 2019.

Design: Analytical cross-sectional study. The outcome variable was adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables, defined as the consumption of five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per d (yes/no). We used concentration curves and Erreygers concentration index to describe socio-economic inequalities and a microeconometric approach to determine the contribution of each variable to inequality.

Setting: Peru.

Participants: Data from Peruvians aged 18 years or older collected by the Demographic and Family Health Survey.

Results: The prevalence of adequate fruit and vegetable consumption did not change between 2014 (10·7 %; 95 % CI (10·0, 11·4)) and 2019 (11 %; 95 % CI (10·4, 11·7)). We found socio-economic inequalities in the adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables, with wealthier individuals having a higher prevalence of adequate consumption compared to poorer individuals in 2014 (19·2 % v. 3·5 %) and 2019 (18·6 % v. 4·7 %). The decomposition analysis found that education, urban areas and being wealthy were the main factors associated with socio-economic inequality in adequate fruit and vegetable consumption, being structural problems of society.

Conclusion: Despite the current regulations on healthy eating in Peru, adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables remains low, and there are socio-economic inequalities between the poorest and wealthiest individuals. Our findings suggest that more efforts are needed to increase the intake and assess the disparities in adequate fruit and vegetable consumption.

Keywords: Fruit; Latin America; Peru; Social inequalities; Vegetables.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Panel A. Equiplot of inequality of ≥5 servings of fruits and vegetables per d. Panel B. Concentration curves for inequality of ≥5 servings of fruits and vegetables per d between 2014 and 2019. Panel A was constructed using data from ENDES 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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