behavior. An examination of this minority group’s FAFH behavior will contribute towards better
understanding of their diet in terms of food and outlet choices as well as help assess the impact of
their health awareness and socio-economic factors on their FAFH behavior.
II. Research Method
This study tries to address the shortcoming in existing research and literature, by examining the FAFH
behaviors of African-Americans with the use of primary data at the micro-level. The survey is designed
to identify African-American consumers’ FAFH behaviors and characteristics in order to fulfill the study
objectives. According to the last Census report, the total number of African-American population in
New Jersey was approximately 1.1million and these two counties account for almost 40 percent of the
African-American population in New Jersey (US Census Bureau). The target population comprised of
African-American households in New Jersey in general and those in the Essex and Union counties in
particular. A sample frame was created using a mailing list of randomly created African-American
households in Essex and Union counties and was purchased from USADATA (www.usadata.com).
There were 1,500 households in the list of which 1,125 were from Essex County and 375 from Union
County; these sub-samples were proportionate to their respective African-American population.
Primary data collection was conducted in the late summer-early fall of 2003 via personal interviews,
telephone interviews, and a mail survey and data collection was completed by end of fall. One of the
main reasons for using the combinations of methods was due to ensure a reasonable number of usable
surveys that will allow us to conduct statistical analysis. A proportional stratified random sampling