Brown Study Will Test Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Incentives in the Workplace

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Monday, November 08, 2010

Tory Elmore, GoLocalProv Contributor

Good to Go, a study recently launched by Brown University Institute for Community Health Promotion and funded by the National Cancer Institute, will test whether establishing low-priced, fresh produce markets in the workplace increases fruit and vegetable consumption by employees. It is one of four university studies assessing and working to overcome barriers to increase consumption in Rhode Island.

"There are many people who know they should eat more fruits and vegetables but can’t seem to do whatever it takes to make it happen," said research professor of community health Kim Gans. She cites a variety of reasons–convenience, habit, taste, cost, availability, family traditions, and cultural norms–for the absence of produce in Rhode Islanders’ diets, as well as the dominance of the food industry's advertisements over public health education. “There are other people out there who just don’t know about the benefits," she continued. "Through advertising, we get hit over the head with other good-tasting, cheap, easy-to-find foods that are not very healthy for us.”

Three Main Excuses: Cost, Convenience and Ignorance

The study calls for participation of 24 employers with 200 or more employees working at a single site in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut communities for one year. Participating companies will be put into three groups; one receiving an onsite produce market, one receiving the onsite market and educational programs on healthy eating, and one receiving educational programs and other promotions on topics other than healthy eating. After a year of participation, companies in the last group will also be offered the option to host an onsite market. In order to track trends in produce consumption during the program's duration, about 100 employees in each of the three study groups will be surveyed periodically on their household's fruit and vegetable consumption. Good to Go has financial benefits too, as produce available at onsite markets is purchased wholesale, making its average cost less than produce available at local supermarkets. The study also has the potential to save employers and the average Rhode Islander millions of dollars in health insurance and other medical costs. "Employers pay the health insurance for their employees,” Gans said. “If this program does have effects in improving people’s health, that affects the bottom line. It’s a win-win.”

Photo: Eric Hunt
 

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