Table 3 Perceptions on availability and price of healthy food and factors affecting food purchasing choices among low-income adults by gender and ethnicity
Variables | Total (N = 2983) | Gender | Ethnicity | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Male (n = 1486) | Female (n = 1497) | Malay (n = 1920) | Chinese (n = 485) | Indian (n = 565) | ||
| Â | n (%) | |||||
Availability of healthy food | ||||||
 Easy | 1153 (38.8) | 575 (38.7) | 582 (38.9) | 785 (40.9)* | 164 (33.8) | 204 (36.1) |
 Moderate | 1440 (48.5) | 719 (48.4) | 727 (48.6) | 898 (46.8) | 255 (52.6) | 287 (50.8) |
 Available with some difficulties | 318 (10.7) | 168 (11.3) | 152 (10.2) | 190 (9.9) | 62 (12.8)* | 66 (11.7) |
 Rare/unavailable | 59 (2.0) | 24 (1.6) | 36 (2.4) | 47 (2.5) | 4 (0.8) | 8 (1.4) |
Price of healthy food | ||||||
 Low | 712 (23.9) | 363 (24.4) | 349 (23.3) | 432 (22.5) | 140 (28.9)* | 139 (24.6) |
 Moderate | 1775 (59.5) | 901 (60.6)* | 874 (58.4) | 1152 (60.0)* | 275 (56.7) | 338 (59.8) |
 High | 496 (16.6) | 222 (14.9) | 274 (18.3)* | 336 (17.5) | 70 (14.4) | 88 (15.6) |
Food purchasing factorsa | ||||||
 Price | 2358 (79.4) | 1164 (78.3) | 1207 (80.6) | 1535 (80.0) | 359 (74.0)* | 464 (82.1) |
 Nutritional value | 2017 (67.9) | 1000 (67.3) | 1025 (68.5) | 1320 (68.8) | 338 (69.7)* | 359 (63.5) |
 Taste | 2168 (73.0) | 1094 (73.6) | 1083 (72.3) | 1417 (73.8) | 333 (68.7) | 418 (74.0) |
 Availability | 2228 (75.0) | 1109 (74.6) | 1131 (75.6) | 1428 (74.4) | 369 (76.1) | 431 (76.3) |
 Popularity | 992 (33.4) | 517 (34.8) | 480 (32.1) | 657 (34.2) | 144 (29.7) | 191 (33.8) |