Final Report Part III ECHIM Pilot Data Collection Analyses and Dissemination

The Irish data were extracted from a specific food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) which was much more detailed
than the EHIS source. The data for each food type from the FFQ was then calculated into daily servings which
were aggregated per respondent to give a daily serving of all vegetables excluding potatoes. Those with a daily
serving of vegetables of one or higher were reported to ECHIM. The Irish data are therefore regarded as more
valid than the (E)HIS derived figures of other countries but hampers cross-country comparability due to the
methodological differences.
Generally, cultural habits could explain part of the differences observed between groups and countries. While the
Mediterranean cuisine is well known for its diversified use of vegetables and salads, the central and eastern
European diet is often higher caloric and based on meat and potato products. Since potatoes are excluded for
this indicator, it may explain the lower consumption prevalence percentages in central and eastern Europe. The
low figures for Germany are drastic anyhow.
On the other side, a healthy diet is commonly considered to include fruits and vegetables, what may also lead to
a social desirability bias, and the rate of over-reporting may differ by country and sex.
Considering the widely accepted “five-a-day” recommendation (two times fruit and three times vegetables a day),
several European countries are far below this goal [2]. Particularly the consumption patterns in Germany,
Estonia, Malta, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Finland are about 50% below this recommended daily
vegetable consumption.
The efficiency of fruit and vegetables promoting strategies may be enhanced if fruit and vegetables are
addressed separately; furthermore, interventions that would specially focus on vegetables are probably needed.
[1a+b] EHIS description
http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/dsis/health/library?l=/methodologiessandsdatasc/healthsinterviewssurvey/ehis_wave_1/20
07-2008_methodology&vm=detailed&sb=Title and meta-data:
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_SDDS/EN/hlth_ehis_esms.htm; last update 14 September 2011.
[2] Naska A et al. “Fruit and vegetable availability among ten European countries: how does it compare with the 'five-a-day'
recommendation? DAFNE I and II projects of the European Commission.”, Br J Nutr. 2000 Oct; 84(4):549-56;
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11103226
all source URLs lastly accessed on June 05 2012
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