Individual and Contextual Factors Supporting Health Communication via Food Labels

描述（由申请人提供）：坚持健康饮食可以延迟许多疾病的发作并减少其影响，这些疾病导致美国每年超过430亿美元的医疗保健和生产力损失成本。支持健康饮食行为的因素是多方面的，许多因素很难改变。在这份提案中，我们研究了一种改善饮食质量的方法，这种方法侧重于决策和支持决策的信息过程。更具体地说，我们建议研究食品标签，一个潜在的重要的饮食和健康信息来源，如何影响决策质量。在一系列的实验室研究中，我们操纵食品标签信息（营养成分表、成分表、标签声明和品牌熟悉度），并使用眼动追踪和有声思维方法来研究过程（例如，所考虑的信息的数量、给予每种信息的相对权重、一种来源类型相对于另一种来源类型的潜在偏差），个人用来理解食品标签信息，以便做出有关食品选择的决定。我们还研究了在何种程度上的质量的决定的基础上，食品标签可以提高通过信息处理任务，在更大程度上比通过阅读食品标签小册子。信息处理策略和决策质量将根据生命过程和食品环境进行评估（例如，当地食品零售商的可用性和食品广告）。生命历程的方法是必不可少的，因为在以后的生活中发生的变化增加了营养的重要性（由于饮食相关的慢性疾病增加），但使营养信息更难以理解（由于工作记忆能力下降）。考虑食物环境是必不可少的，因为每个人有不同的机会和资源来选择健康的食物，这可能会影响成年人如何处理营养信息。我们提出了一个健康传播的生态模型，该模型基于一个强调人与地之间联系的框架，并使用分层整群抽样来确保我们检查信息处理，因为它发生在广泛的社会阶层。该项目的长期目标是通过更有效地传达食品标签上的营养信息来增加饮食选择。在某种程度上，标签比与饮食决定有关的其他因素（如食品环境或教育）更具可塑性，食品标签的修改可能是减少饮食相关疾病发生率的一种相对廉价的方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Adherence to a healthy diet can delay the onset of, as well as reduce the impact of, numerous diseases which result in healthcare and lost productivity costs in excess of $43 billion annually in the United States. Factors that support healthy dietary behaviors are multifaceted and many are difficult to modify. In this proposal, we examine an approach to dietary quality improvement that focuses on decision making and the information processes that support it. More specifically, we propose an examination of how food labels, a potentially important source of diet and health information, affect decision quality. In a series of laboratory studies, we manipulate food label information (nutrition facts panels, ingredient lists, label claims, and brand familiarity) and use eye tracking and think-aloud methodologies to investigate processes (e.g., the number of pieces of information considered, relative weight given to each type of information, potential biases of one source type over another) that individuals use to understand the food label information in order to make decisions regarding food choice. We also examine the extent to which the quality of decisions based on food labels can be increased through information processing tasks to a greater extent than through reading food label pamphlets. Information processing strategies and decision quality will be evaluated in light of life course and food environment (e.g., local food retailer availability and food advertising). A life course approach is essential because of the constellation of changes that occur in later life that increase the importance of nutrition (due to increased diet-related chronic illnesses) yet render nutrition information more challenging to understand (due to declines working memory capacity). A consideration of the food environment is essential because individuals have varying opportunities and resources for healthy food selection which will likely impact how adults process nutrition messages. We propose an ecological model of health communication that is grounded within a framework emphasizing connections between people and places, and use stratified cluster sampling to assure that we examine information processing as it occurs across a wide segment of society. The long-term goal of this project is to increase dietary choice through more effective communication of nutrition information on food labels. To the extent that labels are more malleable than are other factors related to dietary decisions, such as food environment or education, food label modifications may represent a relatively inexpensive approach to reducing the incidence of diet-related diseases.