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ARS Home » Plains Area » Grand Forks, North Dakota » Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center » Healthy Body Weight Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #264163
Title: Who is missing the message? Targeting strategies to increase food label use among US adults

Author
item CHEN, XIAOLI - Johns Hopkins School Of Public Health
item Jahns, Lisa
item GITTELSOHN, JOEL - Johns Hopkins School Of Public Health
item WANG, YOUFA - Johns Hopkins School Of Public Health

Submitted to: Public Health Nutrition
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/29/2011
Publication Date: 10/6/2011
Citation: Chen, X., Jahns, L.A., Gittelsohn, J., Wang, Y. 2011. Who is missing the message? Targeting strategies to increase food label use among US adults. Public Health Nutrition. 15(5),760–772.

Interpretive Summary: To date, no studies have examined whether racial/ethnic difference in the use of food labels (FL) is independent of other socioeconomic status (SES) factors among the general US population, and whether weight status is related to FL use, which can have important public health implications for obesity prevention. Based on nationally representative data, we examined how FL use varied by demographic and nutrition- and health-related psychosocial factors, such as income, education, and nutrition knowledge. We hypothesized that race/ethnic and SES differences existed in FL use. We also evaluated whether people who were overweight or obese and correctly perceived themselves as overweight were more likely to use FLs than people who were overweight or obese but perceived their weight as “about right”. We found that FL use among the US general adult population varied by sociodemographic and nutrition- and health-related psychosocial factors (NHPF) including nutrition knowledge, perception, and beliefs (NKPB). Subjects who were men, Blacks, with lower education or income, or rural residents, and those who were unaware of relationships between diet and disease were less likely to use FLs. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that race/ethnicity and NKPB remain associated with FL use in US adults even after SES being controlled for based on national survey data. More efforts, through nutrition education and making FLs easier to use, should be made to promote FL use among at-risk populations.

Technical Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the associations between sociodemographic and psychosocial characteristics and food label (FL) use in US adults. Design: The 1994-1996 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals and the Diet and Health Knowledge Survey for 2,797 US adults were used. High socioeconomic status (SES) was defined as >high school education and poverty income ratio (PIR)>350%, while low SES as