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Healthy dietary practices among black and white South Africans
1Department of Psychology, University of the North, Sovenga, South Africa. peltzerk@unin.unorth.ac.za
Objectives:
To investigate 5 healthy dietary behaviors among Black and White South Africans.
Design:
Cross-sectional survey with randomly selected participants.
Setting:
Two urban communities in the Northern Province of South Africa.
Participants:
Two hundred fifty Black and 250 White South Africans were chosen by a 1-in-20 systematic random telephone number sampling from the directories of one formerly Black and one formerly White urban area.
Main Outcome Measures:
Measures on dietary behavior, attitudes toward health benefits, risk awareness, and internal health locus of control were administered over the telephone.
Results:
The level of healthy dietary habits was found to below; lower among Whites than among Blacks. One fifth (20.8%) of Whites and one third (33.6%) of Blacks reported weights that translated into a BMI above 25, and 3.6% of Whites and 14% of Blacks reached a BMI above 30. Significant univariate associations with healthy dietary habits were identified for health benefits, BMI, being unmarried and, for Blacks, being a member of a healing church. In multivariate analysis, age, Black race, and female gender were significant predictors for healthy dietary habits.
Conclusion:
Results give insights into culturally diverse dietary health behavior practices and the factors that influence them, which have practical implications for dietary health pro motion.