Patricia M. Risica, DrPH, RD, Kim M. Gans, PhD, MPH, LDN, and Leslie O. Strolla, MS, CHES. Institute for Community Health Promotion, Brown University, 1 Hoppin St., Coro 4-West, Providence, RI 02903, 401-793-8320, Patricia_Risica@brown.edu

Dietary habits, including high fat and low fruit and vegetable intake, are among health behaviors associated with cancer risk. The ?Your Healthy Life? project is a randomized controlled trial of various ways of delivering tailored educational materials among a low income population. The intervention materials all encourage higher fruit and vegetable intake, and lower dietary fat. This presentation explores the associations of self ?reported dietary behaviors with several socioeconomic and demographic characteristics collected from baseline evaluation tools.

Dietary fat behaviors were assessed using the Food Habits Questionnaire developed by Kristal, et al., and fruit and vegetable intake was assessed using a modified version of the NCI Fruit and Vegetable Screener. Socioeconomic and demographic variables were also measured including education, income, race/ethnicity, and food insecurity. Models were constructed to evaluate univariate and multivariate associations of each socioeconomic and demographic variable with each dietary score.

Vegetable intake was higher among Black participants, but was not associated with income, education or food security. Fruit intake was higher among Hispanic, lower income, lower educated, and food insecure participants. Only race/ethnicity and education were associated with fruit intake in the multivariate model. High-fat dietary behaviors were higher among Black, and food insecure participants, as was also higher in the highest and lowest educated groups. These associations remained in multivariate analysis. Overall, this low income sample demonstrates variability in the association of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics with dietary behaviors.

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