An empirical study about food choice and food handling in relation to health : Astudy among elderly people in the central parts of Sweden

Sammanfattning: The relationships between and among questions from a survey in three different areas, namely food and food related health, food safety and hygiene, and information gathering concerning food, with the main focus on the first two areas, are investigated. Data from older people have been analyzed. The questions are both about knowledge and behavior in relation to the areas mentioned above. Earlier studies have shown that people in general do not know about or act according to dietary advises about health and hygiene. The results from this study show that there are fairly strong correlations for all groups but men when it comes to knowledge and behavior about fruit and vegetable consumption. The results also show a significant association between fruit and vegetable consumption and gender and that women consume more than men. A factor model estimating the relationships between health, hygiene and information shows that the fitted factor model can be considered having an acceptable fit, with at least two variables, knowledge about the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables to eat per day and trust for grocery stores concerning food and health, being classified as good indicators.