Association between childhood socioeconomic status and fruit and vegetable intake among older Japanese: The JAGES 2010 study.

Fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) contributes to the prevention of non-communicable diseases. Although food preference is considered to be determined early in life, few studies have investigated the association between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and FVI in older age. Because a school lunch program was initiated in Japan after World War II, we were able in this study to examine this association in an older Japanese population. We used data from a population of physically and cognitively independent adults aged 65years or older who were living independently in the community and were recruited from 27 municipalities in the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study 2010 project (August 2010-January 2012). Three categories of childhood SES (low, middle, and high) and current FVI were evaluated via a self-reported questionnaire. Poisson regression was used to investigate the association between childhood SES and FVI in 19,920 individuals. After adjustment for age and sex, older people with low childhood SES were 1.36 times more likely (95% CI 1.23-1.52) to have poor FVI than those with high childhood SES. In the fully adjusted model, the significant association disappeared. Further age-stratified analysis revealed a positive association between childhood SES and FVI among people aged 70-76years who were partially exposed to the school lunch program, but not among people aged 65-69years old who were fully exposed to the program. In conclusion, social policy such as school lunches targeting children with low SES could help improve FVI in old age.