ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health and Nutrition
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1648218
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring Socio-Cultural Factors in Human Nutrition: The Importance of Multidimensional Approaches.View all 6 articles
Household barriers and facilitators to healthy eating in a U.S. census-representative sample of the general population and a low-income sample: a cross-sectional survey
Provisionally accepted
- 1The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, United States
- 2American Heart Association, Dallas, United States
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The present study aimed to quantify differences in barriers and facilitators to healthy eating experienced in a U.S. census-representative sample of the general population and a sample of low-income individuals.A cross-sectional survey was administered to U.S. adults. Barriers and facilitators to healthy eating were assessed with survey questions pertaining to important and influential attributes for food purchasing, attitudes about food purchasing, and barriers and facilitator to choosing healthy foods. Two samples were recruited: 1) a general sample that was censusrepresentative for age, income, gender, and geographic region approximated from the 2022 US census data (n=1,182); 2) a low-income sample that reported an income of less than $34,000 per year and participating in federal food or healthcare assistance programs (n=506). Differences between samples for barriers and facilitators to healthy eating were assessed using chi-square tests for proportions.Results: Taste and cost were identified as key barriers to healthy eating across all survey questions, and nutritional value of foods was not found to be a priority. Facilitators to healthy eating included having access to budget friendly and good tasting recipes and preparing grocery lists in advance.Discussion: Future interventions seeking to improve diet quality may benefit from emphasizing flavor and taste as necessary components of healthy eating.
Keywords: food choice, healthy eating, Barriers & facilitative factors, diet quality, Food purchasing practices
Received: 16 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tate, Bassett, Gavras, Toner and Petersen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Kayla Ellen Tate, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, United States
Kristina Petersen, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, United States
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