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缓许多疾病的发作，并减少其影响，这些疾病在美国每年造成的医疗保健和生产力损失超过430亿美元。支持健康饮食行为的因素是多方面的，许多因素很难改变。在本提案中，我们研究了一种饮食质量改善的方法，其重点是决策和支持决策的信息处理。更具体地说，我们建议检查食品标签，一个潜在的饮食和健康信息的重要来源，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），并使用眼动追踪和声音思考方法来调查过程（例如，考虑的信息片段的数量、每种信息的相对权重、一种来源类型对另一种来源类型的潜在偏差），人们使用这些过程来理解食品标签信息，以便做出关于食品选择的决定。我们还研究了基于食品标签的决策质量可以通过信息处理任务在更大程度上提高，而不是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历程和食品环境（例如，当地食品零售商的可用性和食品广告）进行评估。生命历程方法是必要的，因为在生命后期发生的一系列变化增加了营养的重要性（由于与饮食有关的慢性疾病的增加），但也使营养信息更难以理解（由于工作记忆容量的下降）。考虑食物环境是必要的，因为个人有不同的选择健康食物的机会和资源，这可能会影响成年人处理营养信息的方式。我们提出了一个健康传播的生态模型，该模型建立在强调人与地方之间联系的框架内，并使用分层聚类抽样来确保我们检查信息处理，因为它发生在社会的广泛部分。该项目的长期目标是通过更有效地传播食品标签上的营养信息来增加饮食选择。在某种程度上，标签比其他与饮食决定有关的因素（如食品环境或教育）更具可塑性，因此修改食品标签可能是减少饮食相关疾病发病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.