Beliefs of South Africans regarding food and cardiovascular health

Objective: To investigate the beliefs of South African metropolitan adults regarding the importance of influencing cardiovascular health by eating certain food types, and to compare these beliefs between different race, living standards, age and gender groups. Design: Randomised cross-sectional study. Trained fieldworkers administered questionnaires by conducting face-to-face interviews with consumers. Subjects: Two thousand South Africans (16 years and older) were randomly selected from metropolitan areas in South Africa. The data were weighted to be representative of the total South African metropolitan population (N = 10 695 000) based on gender, age and race distribution. Results: The majority (94%) of the population indicated that it is important to influence cardiovascular risk-related health issues by eating certain food types, especially the higher LSM (Living Standard Measure) groups within the different race groups. Weight loss was considered the least important (61% indicated that it is important) compared with cholesterol lowering (80%), blood pressure (89%), diabetes (86%) and healthy blood vessels (89%). In the higher LSM groups (7-10) higher proportions of respondents agreed than in the lower LSM groups (2 and 3). No differences were seen in responses between different gender, race and age groups. Conclusions and recommendations: This study shows that the metropolitan South African adult population considers the influence on cardiovascular health by eating certain food types was considered less important.