FOOD PURCHASING BEHAVIOURS, PERCEIVED WEIGHT STATUS, NUTRITION KNOWLEDGE AS FOOD LABEL USE DETERMINANTS AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN INDIA 1*
2
2
2
Snehasree Saha ,V Sudershan Rao ,M Vishnu Vardhana Rao , SubbaRao M. Gavaravarapu 1
2
Udaynarayanpur Madhibalata Mahavidyalaya, University of Calcutta,Kolkata, India,
INTRODUCTION
National Institute of Nutrition, (ICMR), Hyderabad, India
RESULTS
Food labels are printed representation of information about the food on the pack itself. It is often the only available source of information about the food which is pre-packaged. It is a practical tool available to consumer to make food choices. Food Labels provide information on nutrition quality and safety of the food packed inside. Information on the food labels includesManufacturing date and address Expiration date / Best before date Nutrition information Ingredients Cooking and storage details Quality symbols Health/nutrition claims
Table-1: Background information of participants (n=170) Gender
Perceived weight status
54 % boys
32% normal weight
46% girls
30% underweight 33% overweight 4% obese
Table-2: Preferred food categories and purchasing determinants Food category
Label information
Brand name
Price
Consumption percentage (everyday)
Food Labelling - A Public Health Measure In India percentage of children and adolescents suffering from obesity, overweight, hypertension varies from 3 to 30% in different population (Chhatwal et al,2004 ;Kapil et al,2002; Laxmiah et al,2007). Consumption of pre-packaged, processed foods have increased over time and these trends have been partly associated with increasing rates of obesity in developing countries like in India. Use of food labels has been identified as one of the determinants of healthier food choices (Goldberg,1992 ). In Indian population, available research reports indicate use of food label is limited only to understand safety aspects like manufacturing date, expiry or best before date (Sudershan et al,2013;Saha et al,2013). Prior research also indicates given proper awareness and education food label can be used as an available tool to modify food choice behaviour esp.in case of pre-packaged food consumption.
Chocolate
72
11
31.3
15.7
Biscuits
62
15
24.1
24.7
Snacks
46.4
12
25.3
51.2
Cold drinks
59.5
12.7
23.5
7.8
Health drinks
54.8
17.5
20.5
47.6
Awareness about commonly consumed foods like egg, fruits, oil was assessed. It was found that beneficial effect of fruits and vegetable is almost a common knowledge.
RATIONALE Available research indicates reading of food label information could be promoted using nutrition education at an early age to modify food choice behaviour. It is important to understand the determinants of food label use among adolescents of India in order to plan an educational intervention to promote use of label information and thus healthy food choices.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
Whereas, understanding about presence of saturated and trans fat in commonly consumed food was found to be low. Understanding of ‘energy’ , its unit and derivatives were low among participants compared to other parameter of nutrition knowledge.
Table-3: Food categories and label information read by the adolescents
To assess the association between determinants such as food purchasing behaviours, self-perceived weight and nutrition knowledge with the use and motivation to use label information to make food choices.
METHODOLOGY Study Design: A cross-sectional study covering 3 schools where the medium of instruction was English and catering to the children from middle income groups. Study Location: Hyderabad, a city in South India. Sample: In all 170 students belonging VIII and IX grades from the select schools. Data Collection: The study was conducted using a validated questionnaire which was developed using the following steps-
Food category
Ingredients
Sugar
Fat
Veg/non veg symbols
Health and nutrition claims
Chocolate
62
46
51
62
57
Biscuits
73
48
54
62
58
Snacks
76
60
51
58
54
Cold drinks
56
46
50
40
45
Health drinks
74.8
56
53
56
54
Figure-1: Development of the Survey Instrument Item pool generation
Literature search
The clear gap between checking for food label information and use of food label as a determinant of food purchase could be explained by lack of basic nutrition knowledge. The association of nutrition knowledge and the use of food label information was found to be significant (chi square test, p=0.05)
Identification of major determinants (Gender, Nutrition Education, Intention and Attitude)
Preparation of draft questionnaire Items includedFrequently consumed packaged foods Nutrition Knowledge Food Label Use Various aspects of food labels Quality Symbols Opinion & Perception
23 items Questionnaire was made
Content validity Review by a panel of 4 experts from - Nutrition Education; Psychology; Public Health; Food Safety & Regulation
Intention to learn about label information was more among one third of the subjects who perceived themselves as overweight or obese, indicating self-perceived weight status could be a predictor of label use.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The present study was formative in nature and is part of multi-component intervention study “Read B4 U Eat’ and helped to understand different parameters associated with label use among adolescents. The results show that the brand name and claims are considered as important determinants to select a food over price and nutritional information of the food. The association of nutrition knowledge and use of food label brings out the necessity of educational intervention, which could deal with basic nutrition awareness like energy and its derivatives, saturated fat , trans fat and their effect on health. The intention to learn label could be channelized using communication theories to motivate children and adolescents use food label for healthier food choice.
REFERENCES Chhatwal, J., Verma, M., & Riar, S. K. (2003). Obesity among pre-adolescent and adolescents of a developing country (India). Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition, 13(3), 231-235. Kaur, S., Kapil, U., & Singh, P. (2005). Pattern of chronic diseases amongst adolescent obese children in developing countries. Curr Sci, 88(7), 1052-1056. Laxmaiah, A., Nagalla, B., Vijayaraghavan, K., & Nair, M. (2007). Factors Affecting Prevalence of Overweight Among 12 - 17‐year‐old Urban Adolescents in Hyderabad, India. Obesity, 15(6), 1384-1390. Vemula, S. R., Gavaravarapu, S. M., Mendu, V. V. R., Mathur, P., & Avula, L. (2014). Use of food label information by urban consumers in Indiaa study among supermarket shoppers. Public health nutrition, 17(09), 2104-2114.
Ethical Clearance: The study protocol was cleared by IEC of the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, India. Written informed consent was taken from the parents and the children before the survey.
Saha, S., Vemula, S. R., Mendu, V. V. R., & Gavaravarapu, S. M. (2013). Knowledge and Practices of Using Food Label Information Among Adolescents Attending Schools in Kolkata, India. Journal of nutrition education and behavior,45(6), 773-779.
Data Collection: Data was collected in classroom settings in presence of an investigator and one teacher from each school. The questionnaire was distributed to all the children for self administration.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
® Data Analysis: The data from the questionnaire was entered in MS-Excel and number–coding was used for all the answers. Analysis was done using SPSS 19. Descriptive statistics like frequency , chi-sqaure and crosstabulation were used for analysis.
The authors sincerely acknowledge co-operation of school authorities and participants for taking part in the study. We also sincerely acknowledge support received from the then Director InCharge Dr. K.Polasa, National Institute of Nutrition, ICMR, Hyderabad.
*Corresponding author:
[email protected]
12th Asian Congress of Nutrition, 14th – 18th MAy, 2015. Yokohoma. Japan.
