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Background: Food decision-making is a complex process and varies according to the setting, based on cultural and contextual factors. The study aimed to understand the process of food decision-making in households in rural Kerala, India, to inform the design of a dietary behaviour change intervention. Methods: Three focus group discussions (FGDs) and 17 individual interviews were conducted from September 2010 to January 2011 among 13 men and 40 women, between 23 and 75 years of age. An interview guide facilitated the process to understand: 1) food choices and decision-making in households, with particular reference to access; and 2) beliefs about foods, particularly fruits, vegetables, salt, sugar and oil. The interviews and FGDs were transcribed verbatim and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The analysis revealed one main theme: 'Balancing expectations amidst limitations' with two sub-themes: 'Counting and meeting the costs'; and 'Finding the balance'. Food decisions were made at the household level, with money, time and effort costs weighed against the benefits, estimated in terms of household needs, satisfaction and expectations. The most crucial decisional point was affordability in terms of money costs, followed by food preferences of husband and children. Health and the risk of acquiring chronic diseases was not a major consideration in the decision-making process. Foods perceived as essential for children were purchased irrespective of cost, reportedly owing to the influence of food advertisements. The role of the woman as the homemaker has gendered implications, as the women disproportionately bore the burden of balancing the needs and expectations of all the household members within the available means. Conclusions: The food decision-making process occurred at household level, and within the household, by the preferences of spouse and children, and cost considerations. The socio-economic status of households was identified as limiting their ability to manoeuvre this fine balance. The study has important policy implications in terms of the need to raise public awareness of the strong link between diet and chronic non-communicable diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trial Design: With the rise in prevalence of non-communicable diseases in India and Kerala in particular, efforts to develop lifestyle interventions have increased. However, contextualised interventions are limited. We developed and implemented contextualised behavioural intervention strategies focusing on household dietary behaviours in selected rural areas in Kerala and conducted a community-based pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial to assess its effectiveness to increase the intake of fruits and vegetables at individual level, and the procurement of fruits and vegetables at the household level and reduce the consumption of salt, sugar and oil at the household level., Methods: Six out of 22 administrative units in the northern part of Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala state were selected as geographic boundaries and randomized to either intervention or control arms. Stratified sampling was carried out and 30 clusters comprising 6-11 households were selected in each arm. A cluster was defined as a neighbourhood group functioning in rural areas under a state-sponsored community-based network (Kudumbasree). We screened 1237 households and recruited 479 (intervention: 240; control: 239) households and individuals (male or female aged 25-45 years) across the 60 clusters. 471 households and individuals completed the intervention and end-line survey and one was excluded due to pregnancy. Interventions were delivered for a period of one-year at household level at 0, 6, and 12 months, including counselling sessions, telephonic reminders, home visits and general awareness sessions through the respective neighbourhood groups in the intervention arm. Households in the control arm received general dietary information leaflets. Data from 478 households (239 in each arm) were included in the intention-to-treat analysis, with the household as the unit of analysis., Results: There was significant, modest increase in fruit intake from baseline in the intervention arm (12.5%); but no significant impact of the intervention on vegetable intake over the control arm. There was a significant increase in vegetable procurement in the intervention arm compared to the control arm with the actual effect size showing an overall increase by19%; 34% of all households in the intervention arm had increased their procurement by at least 20%, compared to 17% in the control arm. Monthly household consumption of salt, sugar and oil was greatly reduced in the intervention arm compared to the control arm with the actual effect sizes showing an overall reduction by 45%, 40% and 48% respectively., Conclusions: The intervention enabled significant reduction in salt, sugar and oil consumption and improvement in fruit and vegetable procurement at the household level in the intervention arm. However, there was a disconnect between the demonstrated increase in FV procurement and the lack of increase in FV intake. We need to explore fruit and vegetable intake behaviour further to identify strategies or components that would have made a difference. We can take forward the lessons learned from this study to improve our understanding of human dietary behaviour and how that can be changed to improve health within this context., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Dietary interventions and existing health behaviour theories are centred on individuals; therefore, none of the available tools are applicable to households for changing dietary behaviour. The objective of this pilot study was to develop a practical tool that could be administered by community volunteers to stage households in rural Kerala based on readiness to change dietary behaviour. Such a staging tool, comprising a questionnaire and its algorithm, focusing five dietary components (fruits, vegetables, salt, sugar and oil) and households (rather than individuals), was finalised through three consecutive pilot validation sessions, conducted over a four-month period. Each revised version was tested with a total of 80 households (n = 30, 35 and 15 respectively in the three sessions). The tool and its comparator, Motivational Interviewing (MI), assessed the stage-of-change for a household pertaining to their: 1) fruit and vegetable consumption behaviour; 2) salt, sugar and oil consumption behaviour; 3) overall readiness to change. The level of agreement between the two was tested using Kappa statistics to assess concurrent validity. A value of 0.7 or above was considered as good agreement. The final version was found to have good face and content validity, and also a high level of agreement with MI (87%; weighted kappa statistic: 0.85). Internal consistency testing was performed using Cronbach's Alpha, with a value between 0.80 and 0.90 considered to be good. The instrument had good correlation between the items in each section (Cronbach's Alpha: 0.84 (fruit and vegetables), 0.85 (salt, sugar and oil) and 0.83 (Overall)). Pre-contemplation was the most difficult stage to identify; for which efficacy and perceived cooperation at the household level were important. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first staging tool for households. This tool represents a new concept in community-based dietary interventions. The tool can be easily administered by lay community workers and can therefore be used in large population-based studies. A more robust validation process with a larger sample is needed before it can be widely used., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.