Cargando…
Use of nutritional information: analysing clusters of consumers who intend to eat healthily
Consumers intending to eat healthily should consult available information on the energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat content of foods. Some consumers, however, do this more than others do. The objective of this research was to identify distinct subgroups within the group of consumers who intend to...
Autores principales: | , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Cambridge University Press
2019
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6498756/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31080590 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jns.2019.13 |
_version_ | 1783415680778895360 |
---|---|
author | van Buul, Vincent J. Bolman, Catherine A. W. Brouns, Fred J. P. H. Lechner, Lilian |
author_facet | van Buul, Vincent J. Bolman, Catherine A. W. Brouns, Fred J. P. H. Lechner, Lilian |
author_sort | van Buul, Vincent J. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Consumers intending to eat healthily should consult available information on the energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat content of foods. Some consumers, however, do this more than others do. The objective of this research was to identify distinct subgroups within the group of consumers who intend to eat healthily, segmented according to the timing and frequency of their use of information about energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat. Furthermore, we analysed whether consulting this information actually led to healthier food choices. Data on use of specific nutritional information in a computerised task in which participants made multiple dichotomous food choices (e.g. high-fat v. low-fat cheese) were recorded from 240 participants using process tracing software. Participants could view nutritional information by hovering the mouse over specific areas of the screen. We found three clusters of participants based on use of information about energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat: low, medium and high information users. There was a between-clusters difference in how often the healthy option was chosen (88·95 % with high information v. 67·17 % with low information usage). Presence in the medium and high information clusters was partially predicted by perceived self-efficacy in making healthy choices. It appears that some consumers are very confident of their ability to make healthy choices, which is a reason for making less use of nutritional information prior to making food choices and may result in unhealthy choices. Our findings improve understanding of the conditions needed to develop effective interventions targeted at health-conscious consumers. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6498756 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Cambridge University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-64987562019-05-10 Use of nutritional information: analysing clusters of consumers who intend to eat healthily van Buul, Vincent J. Bolman, Catherine A. W. Brouns, Fred J. P. H. Lechner, Lilian J Nutr Sci Research Article Consumers intending to eat healthily should consult available information on the energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat content of foods. Some consumers, however, do this more than others do. The objective of this research was to identify distinct subgroups within the group of consumers who intend to eat healthily, segmented according to the timing and frequency of their use of information about energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat. Furthermore, we analysed whether consulting this information actually led to healthier food choices. Data on use of specific nutritional information in a computerised task in which participants made multiple dichotomous food choices (e.g. high-fat v. low-fat cheese) were recorded from 240 participants using process tracing software. Participants could view nutritional information by hovering the mouse over specific areas of the screen. We found three clusters of participants based on use of information about energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat: low, medium and high information users. There was a between-clusters difference in how often the healthy option was chosen (88·95 % with high information v. 67·17 % with low information usage). Presence in the medium and high information clusters was partially predicted by perceived self-efficacy in making healthy choices. It appears that some consumers are very confident of their ability to make healthy choices, which is a reason for making less use of nutritional information prior to making food choices and may result in unhealthy choices. Our findings improve understanding of the conditions needed to develop effective interventions targeted at health-conscious consumers. Cambridge University Press 2019-04-29 /pmc/articles/PMC6498756/ /pubmed/31080590 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jns.2019.13 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article van Buul, Vincent J. Bolman, Catherine A. W. Brouns, Fred J. P. H. Lechner, Lilian Use of nutritional information: analysing clusters of consumers who intend to eat healthily |
title | Use of nutritional information: analysing clusters of consumers who intend to eat healthily |
title_full | Use of nutritional information: analysing clusters of consumers who intend to eat healthily |
title_fullStr | Use of nutritional information: analysing clusters of consumers who intend to eat healthily |
title_full_unstemmed | Use of nutritional information: analysing clusters of consumers who intend to eat healthily |
title_short | Use of nutritional information: analysing clusters of consumers who intend to eat healthily |
title_sort | use of nutritional information: analysing clusters of consumers who intend to eat healthily |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6498756/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31080590 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jns.2019.13 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT vanbuulvincentj useofnutritionalinformationanalysingclustersofconsumerswhointendtoeathealthily AT bolmancatherineaw useofnutritionalinformationanalysingclustersofconsumerswhointendtoeathealthily AT brounsfredjph useofnutritionalinformationanalysingclustersofconsumerswhointendtoeathealthily AT lechnerlilian useofnutritionalinformationanalysingclustersofconsumerswhointendtoeathealthily |