Eating Habits and Knowledge of Nutrition in Older Adults: A Comparison of Gardeners and Nongardeners

Abstract

A survey was used to investigate gardeners’ and nongardeners’ nutritional attitudes, fruit and vegetable consumption, and nutritional knowledge. The survey was posted for 4 months on one of the largest online resources for Master Gardeners. During the 4 months, 402 responses were gathered. Additionally, identical “paper/pencil” format surveys were distributed to garden, church, and social and community groups with ≈400 responses received. In each group of participants, respondents differentiated themselves as gardeners or nongardeners by responding positively or negatively to the survey question, “do you garden?” No statistically significant relationships were found relating fruit and vegetable consumption to either income level or educational attainment status in the overall sample. Results indicated statistically significant differences in comparisons between gardeners and nongardeners with regards to nutritional attitudes and their consumption of fruit and vegetables where gardeners had more positive nutritional attitude scores and increased consumption of fruit and vegetables. However, no statistically significant differences were found between gardeners’ and nongardeners’ nutritional knowledge.