Positive Influences and barriers for fruits and vegetables consumption in employees and their spouses: Qualitative and quantitative results

As part of a 2-year worksite health program that included a 14-weeks onsite fruits and vegetables (F&V) intervention, 77 of 177 married/cohabitating state employees and their spouses agreed to be interviewed about influences and barriers on their F&V consumption. We conducted interviews until the multi-rater response set was largely non-unique (saturated), resulting in 64 separate interviews from 32 married couples (52% of the dyads were female employees and their spouses). Although a substantial percentage of both female (76.5%) and male (53.3%) employees reported the F&V program as influential in increasing their F&V consumption, only the female employees' spouses reported similar levels of influence (61.5%), supporting previous research on the key role women play in shaping F&V consumption in families. Advance preparation of F&Vs was the next most important influence and was similarly concordant across the dyads. Male and female employees most frequently reported and were most concordant with their spouses in reporting “difficulty/inconvenience in preparing F&Vs” as a barrier. As expected, women were much more likely than men to report being responsible for food shopping/planning/preparing; however, male employees (66.7%) were similarly likely as female employees (76.5%) to report increasing their buying of F&Vs since their F&V program started. Several other qualitative and quantitative findings are discussed within the context of a comprehensive approach including environmental-, familial-, and individual-level strategies for increasing F&V consumption.