Patients often do not eat/drink enough during hospitalization. To enable patients to meet their energy and nutritional requirements, food and catering service quality and staff support are therefore important. We assessed patients’ satisfaction with hospital food and investigated aspects influencing it.

We conducted a cross-sectional study collecting patients’ preferences using a slightly modified version of the Acute Care Hospital Foodservice Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (ACHFPSQ). Factor analysis was carried out to reduce the number of food-quality and staff-issue variables. Univariate and multivariate ordinal categorical regression models were used to assess the association between food quality, staff issues, patients’ characteristics, hospital recovery aspects and overall foodservice satisfaction (OS).

A university hospital in Florence, Italy, in the period November–December 2009.

Hospital patients aged 18+ years (n 927).

Of the 1288 questionnaires distributed, 927 were returned completely or partially filled in by patients and 603 were considered eligible for analysis. Four factors (explained variance 64·3 %, Cronbach's alpha αC = 0.856), i.e. food quality (FQ; αC = 0·74), meal service quality (MSQ; αC = 0·73), hunger and quantity (HQ; αC = 0·74) and staff/service issues (SI; αC = 0·65), were extracted from seventeen items. Items investigating staff/service issues were the most positively rated while certain items investigating food quality were the least positively rated. After ordinal multiple regression analysis, OS was only significantly associated with the four factors: FQ, MSQ, HQ and SI (OR = 17·2, 6·16, 3·09 and 1·75, respectively, P < 0·001), and gender (OR = 1·53, P = 0·024).

The most positively scored aspects of foodservice concerned staff/service, whereas food quality was considered less positive. The aspects that most influenced patients’ satisfaction were those related to food quality.

Food marketing has been identified as a significant driver of the childhood obesity epidemic. The purpose of the present study was to (i) conduct a content analysis of the types of sports references that appear on supermarket food and beverage products and (ii) assess each product's nutritional and marketing profile.

This was a descriptive study. Every product featuring sports references on the packaging was purchased in two major supermarkets during 2010. A content analysis was conducted and nutritional evaluations were made based on the Nutrient Profile Model, a validated nutrition model. Marketing data were obtained from The Nielsen Company.

Two major supermarkets in Connecticut, USA.

Food and beverage products (n 102) were selected from two supermarkets.

The 102 products (fifty-three foods and forty-nine beverages) had sports references as part of their packaging: 72·5 % featured a character exercising, 42·2 % were endorsed by a professional sports entity and 34·0 % were child-targeted. The median nutrition score for food products was 36 (1 = unhealthiest and 100 = healthiest; scores of ≥63 are considered healthy according to this model). More than two-thirds of beverages (69·4 %) were 100 % sugar-sweetened. Children saw significantly more commercials for these products than adults.

Companies place sports figures on food and beverage products that are child-targeted and unhealthy.

To explore current awareness and perceptions of whole grain foods and perceived barriers and facilitators of whole grain consumption.

Focus groups were conducted to investigate consumer attitudes to whole grains. Discussions were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically.

Discussions were held throughout Northern Ireland with adults who were at least partly responsible for food shopping.

Seven focus groups were held (n 43; thirty-three females, ten males).

All participants were aware of the term ‘whole grain’ and had a basic level of awareness of their health benefits. Prominent barriers and facilitators of whole grain intake were related to perceptions of the sensory properties (most dominant factor) of whole grains; knowledge of how to locate, identify and use whole grains; and awareness of the health benefits, perceived cost and family influences. Parents of young children appeared to be altruistically motivated with many stating they wanted to ensure their children consumed whole grains in order to establish good eating habits.

Participants were generally aware of the term ‘whole grain’; however, even against a background of increased availability and promotion of whole grain foods, many key barriers to whole grain consumption were still evident. Alongside general education efforts, opportunities and challenges exist for the food industry to develop novel, but affordable, food products that are able to deliver whole grains in a wide variety of forms, including whole grains ‘in disguise’ for those who are most resistant to change.

To identify factors associated with food insecurity and household eating patterns among American-Indian families with young children.

Cross-sectional survey among households with young children that were receiving emergency food services. We collected information on food insecurity levels, household eating patterns, experiences with commercial and community food sources and demographics, and used multivariate regression techniques to examine associations among these variables.

Four Southwestern American-Indian reservation communities.

A total of 425 parents/caregivers of young children completed the survey.

Twenty-nine per cent of children and 45 % of adults from households participating in the survey were classified as ‘food insecure’. Larger household size was associated with increased food insecurity and worse eating patterns. Older respondents were more likely than younger respondents to have children with food insecurity (relative risk = 2·19, P < 0·001) and less likely to have healthy foods available at home (relative risk = 0·45, P < 0·01). Consumption of food from food banks, gas station/convenience stores or fast-food restaurants was not associated with food insecurity levels. Respondents with transportation barriers were 1·46 times more likely to be adult food insecure than respondents without transportation barriers (P < 0·001). High food costs were significantly associated with greater likelihoods of adult (relative risk = 1·47, P < 0·001) and child (relative risk = 1·65, P < 0·001) food insecurity.

Interventions for American-Indian communities must address challenges such as expense and limited transportation to accessing healthy food. Results indicate a need for services targeted to older caregivers and larger households. Implications for innovative approaches to promoting nutrition among American-Indian communities, including mobile groceries and community gardening programmes, are discussed.