Psychosocial determinants of fruit and vegetable consumption in a Japanese population

There is limited evidence in Japan regarding the psychosocial determinants of fruit/vegetable intake. We performed a cross-sectional study of people aged 18 years or older in four regions of Japan; 2308 (men: 1012, women: 1296) individuals who completed the questionnaires were included.We found that 24.8% of people were aware of the current recommendations for vegetables and 13.2% for fruit and that “ability to design meals” and “availability when eating outside of the home” were the most important factors related to self-efficacy and barriers to fruit and vegetable intake, respectively. People with high self-efficacy (OR: 3.16; 95% CI: 2.17, 4.60 for fruit; OR: 4.52; 95% CI: 3.08, 6.64 for vegetables) were more likely to consume more fruit and vegetables. People with high scores on attitude (OR: 1.54; 95% CI: 1.06, 2.24) and social support (OR: 1.59; 95% CI: 1.11, 2.27) were more likely to consume more fruit. People with high perceived barriers (OR: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.48, 0.98) were less likely to consume fruit. This study suggests a need to increase the general population’s awareness of the fruit and vegetable intake recommendations; facilitating positive attitudes, self-efficacy, and social support for individuals and strengthening the ability of individuals to design meals with more vegetables and fruit might be useful intervention programs.