Full metadata
Title
Associations between self-perception of health and diet, and awareness and use of calorie labeling
Description
The increase in obesity since the 1980's has been associated with fast-food consumption. In hopes that calorie labeling will be an effective tool to combat obesity, congress included a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) that will require all restaurants with twenty or more locations to post calorie information for each menu item. Current research has provided mixed results regarding the effectiveness of calorie labeling, but overall seems to suggest that calorie labeling may only be effective among certain populations. In September, 2012 McDonald's began to post calorie labels on their menu boards before it was federally mandated under the ACA. This policy provided the opportunity to study the impact of calorie labeling on the purchasing behavior of McDonald's patrons. This cross-sectional study was designed to determine if self-perception of diet, self-perception of health, smoking, physical activity, fruit and vegetable intake, or knowledge of daily calorie requirements is associated with the likelihood of noticing or using calorie labels, or total calories purchased. In addition, relationships between noticing or using calorie labels with total calories purchased were also examined. Receipts and survey responses were collected from 330 participants who purchased food and beverage items from 27 different McDonald's locations within a 20 mile radius of downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Results indicated that only 16.1% of the sample reported using calorie labels, and those who reported using calorie labels purchased an average of 136 fewer calories. Multivariate analysis indicated there were no statistically significant relationships between self-perception of diet, self-perception of health, smoking, physical activity, fruit and vegetable intake, or knowledge of daily calorie requirements with the likelihood of noticing or using calorie labels, or total calories purchased. However, it is possible that the small sample size of participants using calorie labeling precluded any statistically significant relationships among these variables from emerging. Further research with larger sample sizes should be conducted, to investigate individual level factors that may be associated with use of calorie labeling.
Date Created
2013
Contributors
- Brown, Alan (Author)
- Ohri-Vachaspati, Punam (Thesis advisor)
- Bruening, Meredith (Committee member)
- Wharton, Christopher (Christopher Mack), 1977- (Committee member)
- Arizona State University (Publisher)
Topical Subject
- Nutrition
- Behavior
- calorie
- Knowledge
- Labeling
- Menu
- Self-perception
- Self-perception
- Convenience foods--Caloric content--United States.
- Convenience foods
- Convenience foods--Labeling--United States.
- Convenience foods
- Consumers--Health and hygiene.
- Consumers
- Consumers--United States--Attitudes.
- Fast food restaurants--United States.
- Obesity--United States.
- Public health--United States.
Resource Type
Extent
vii, 71, [12] p
Language
Copyright Statement
In Copyright
Primary Member of
Peer-reviewed
No
Open Access
No
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.21033
Statement of Responsibility
by Alan Brown
Description Source
Retrieved on March 26, 2014
Level of coding
full
Note
Partial requirement for: M.S., Arizona State University, 2013
Note type
thesis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-69)
Note type
bibliography
Field of study: Nutrition
System Created
- 2014-01-31 11:38:26
System Modified
- 2021-08-30 01:36:24
- 2 years 8 months ago
Additional Formats