To identify the most common frequency of food-purchasing patterns and relate this pattern to characteristics of individuals and families.

A customer-intercept survey was conducted in the greater Houston area, Texas, USA, in 2002. The frequency of food shopping at supermarkets, convenience stores and restaurants to buy food for eating at home was assessed.

A total of 823 adults (78.5% female; mean age 37.4 years) who went to any of several grocery or convenience stores, including European, Hispanic and African Americans, and Asian/Pacific Islanders.

Major food-shopping patterns were a weekly big trip with a few small trips (34.9%), biweekly big trips with a few small trips (21.9%), no big shopping trips (15.4%), a weekly big trip without small trips (13.9%), a monthly big trip (8.3%), and biweekly big trips without small trips (6.4%). While 61.1% of participants never went to convenience stores to buy fruit and vegetables (F&V) for eating at home, 67% went to restaurants for F&V. African American families shopped for food least frequently, while Asian American families shopped for food most frequently. Educational level was negatively associated with the use of convenience stores and positively associated with takeaway from restaurants.

There is substantial variability in the frequency of food shopping. Future research on food shopping should incorporate this variable.

To determine whether surveillance and infection control interventions decrease the incidence of catheter-related (CR) bloodstream infections (BSIs) in Korea.

A medical-surgical intensive care unit (ICU) of a university hospital in Korea.

The CR infection rate of the intervention period was compared to that of historical controls for a 4-month period.

All patients with a central venous catheter in the intensive care unit (ICU) from October 1998 to January 1999.

Active infection control programs were initiated during the intervention period. Data collected included patient characteristics, risk factors of CR infection, and the microbiology laboratory results. Laboratory-proven CR infection rates were compared between the intervention group and control group.

304 catheters were inserted into 248 patients. The intervention group and the control group showed similar characteristics, but more patients in the intervention group received steroid therapy, and subclavian insertion was more common in the intervention group. CR BSI occurred in 1.3 per 1,000 catheter-days in the intervention group and 4.2 in the control group (binomial test, P=.14). CR infections were associated with the duration of ICU admission by multivariate logistic regression.

The data suggested that an active infection surveillance and control program could reduce the rate of CR BSI in an ICU.