Legumes consumption among young and adult residents in Sicily (south Italy): evidence and predictive factors.

Introduction: Despite the consumption of legumes isrecommended by public health agencies around the world becauseof beneficial for health they tend to be consumed infrequently. Thispaper investigates the legumes consumption between young andadults resident in Sicily (south Italy) and explores its association withpotential predictors.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2015-2016.Participants were recruited into gyms and pediatrician’s officers.Legumes consumption, socio-demographic variables, habits andlifestyle were evaluated using an anonymous questionnaire. Tocompare between group differences in all continuous or categoricalvariables, parametric or non-parametric test were appropriatelyused to test statistical significance. A logistic regression analysis wasconducted in order to assess the role of the participant characteristicson the legumes consumption. The statistical significance was set to0.05.Results: Participants were 561 (71% females) aged 4-74 years(mean 35 ± 16). The “legume consumers” were less than 50%. Ourresults indicate that, predictors supported by the greatest amountof evidence may be gender, age, education level, residence, maritalstatus, occupation, weight status and physical activity. In particularthe odds for greater legumes consumption increased for the subjectsengage regular physical activity (OR =1.68; p= 0.019).Conclusions: The legumes consumption was infrequent despitetheir positive health effects. Future studies are needed to increaseknowledge about the reasons for the low consumption of legumesand to implement interventions and specific education about their healthy benefits.