Personal, Normative, and Access-Related Correlates of Fruit and Vegetable Purchase Intention in Peruvian Adults

Background/Objectives: Fruit and vegetable purchase intention may reflect personal, normative, and access-related factors, yet evidence from Peru remains limited. This study aimed to examine associations of health consciousness, family influence, perceived behavioral control, and perceived convenience and availability with attitude and fruit and vegetable purchase intention, including indirect statistical associations through attitude. Methods: This cross-sectional study used non-probability convenience sampling to recruit 458 adults residing in Peru; 73.8% were female, 76.9% had university education, and 66.2% resided in Lima. Standardized composite scores were analyzed in a path model adjusted for sex, age group, education, marital status, household income, and region. HC3 robust standard errors and 5000 bootstrap resamples were used. Results: Health consciousness (β = 0.331), perceived behavioral control (β = 0.228), and perceived convenience and availability (β = 0.096) were positively associated with attitude, whereas family influence was not. Attitude was positively associated with purchase intention (β = 0.568), while direct associations of the four antecedents with purchase intention were not supported. Positive indirect statistical associations through attitude were observed for health consciousness (β = 0.188, 95% CI: 0.117-0.265), perceived behavioral control (β = 0.130, 95% CI: 0.073-0.190), and perceived convenience and availability (β = 0.055, 95% CI: 0.010-0.104). The model explained 29.4% of attitude and 43.2% of purchase-intention variance. Conclusions: Health consciousness and perceived behavioral control showed the most consistent associations. Given the non-random and demographically imbalanced sample, findings should not be generalized to all Peruvian adults or interpreted as causal pathways or actual purchasing behavior.