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Abstract
Apart from individual factors like knowledge or personal motivation, the environment also influences a person’s eating behaviour. Food environments can be described as the collective physical, economic, policy and sociocultural surroundings, opportunities and conditions that influence people’s food choices and nutritional status. In order to explore how older citizens in rural Germany perceive and handle their food environment, we conducted semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 35 older adults (71 ± 7 years), asking about micro-, meso- and macro-level influences on eating habits. Participants reported social factors to be crucial in shaping their diets, such as preferences of family members or social expectations connected to roles (guest, host). On a physical level, structural aspects and resources in their nearby surroundings influenced shopping and eating behaviour (for example access to an own vegetable garden, local shopping facilities and restaurants). Macro-level influences such as the food industry were hardly mentioned. Participants noticed that the environment affects their diets but dealt with undesired influences using strategies of adaptation and behaviour change, rather than challenging the environmental influences. Public health projects should raise the awareness of the multiple environmental influences on eating behaviour and also help people to create healthier food environments.
Highlights
IntroductionThe prevalence rates of obesity and nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (e.g., cancer, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases) are increasing in many developed countries, highlighting the necessity of public health programs focusing on healthy diets [1,2,3,4]
The prevalence rates of obesity and nutrition-related non-communicable diseases are increasing in many developed countries, highlighting the necessity of public health programs focusing on healthy diets [1,2,3,4]
The interviews illustrate that the participating senior citizens are aware of multiple factors influencing their food choice and diet in their everyday life, some of those factors even preventing them from eating the way they would prefer or the way they considered as healthy
Summary
The prevalence rates of obesity and nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (e.g., cancer, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases) are increasing in many developed countries, highlighting the necessity of public health programs focusing on healthy diets [1,2,3,4]. Educational and/or behavioural approaches, have not been as successful as expected [5]. This can partly be attributed to the fact that individual factors (e.g., knowledge, personal motivation) affect a person’s eating behaviour, and the environment and the conditions that the person lives in. Charter, published by the World Health Organization, stated that “health is created in and lived by people within the settings of their everyday life”; it suggested that health promotion approaches should aim at changing people’s surroundings and contexts in a way that renders healthy choices easier [6]. Food environments can be described as “the collective physical, economic, policy and sociocultural surroundings, opportunities and conditions that influence people’s food choices and nutritional status”. Public Health 2020, 17, 6940; doi:10.3390/ijerph17196940 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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