Sensory Features, Liking and Emotions of Consumers towards Classical, Molecular and Note by Note Foods

Measuring and describing perceived quality on physiotherapy practice management software

INTRODUCTION

Despite the growing trend in the use of digital technologies in physiotherapy, the overall adoption and satisfaction of both, practice management software (PMS) and electronic health records in physiotherapy clinics has been low and slow over time. Satisfaction of expectations or perceived quality (PQ) is an abstract construct based on the discrepancy between expectations and perceptions, to measure the satisfaction of physiotherapists on PMS. This study aims to develop and validate an instrument to measure PQ on PMS, and to describe the PQ of the currently available physiotherapy PMS.

METHODS

Instrument development study with validity and reliability testing. The development of this questionnaire was conducted in 3 phases: identification of attributes to be explored; development of the item pairs and pretesting; pilot study for item reduction, and psychometric testing. The questionnaire was distributed to chartered physiotherapists. A total of 144 participants completed the questionnaire.

RESULTS

A series of analyses were conducted to assess item reduction, factor structure of the questionnaire and metric properties of multi-item scales. From the initial 43 attributes, the final version of the Quality Questionnaire on Physiotherapy Practice Management Software consisted of 24 items of PQ on PMS, structured in 3 areas (clinical care, administrative activities, and accounting), which included 11, 9, and 4 items grouped into 4, 3, and 2 scales respectively. The questionnaire proved to be reliable and valid. In multitrait scaling analysis, all scores had strong item-scale correlations, excellent item scaling success, and good internal consistency (Cronbach alpha coefficients of >0.7).

CONCLUSIONS

Our study provides a valuable PQ questionnaire on PMS attributes for clinical care, administrative activities, and accounting. The attributes related to clinical care and control stock supplies showed a worse PQ. This suggests that those functions related to clinical care should be improved to facilitate greater satisfaction with physiotherapy PMS.

Brow and Masticatory Muscle Activity Senses Subjective Hedonic Experiences during Food Consumption

Sensing subjective hedonic or emotional experiences during eating using physiological activity is practically and theoretically important. A recent psychophysiological study has reported that facial electromyography (EMG) measured from the corrugator supercilii muscles was negatively associated with hedonic ratings, including liking, wanting, and valence, during the consumption of solid foods. However, the study protocol prevented participants from natural mastication (crushing of food between the teeth) during physiological data acquisition, which could hide associations between hedonic experiences and masticatory muscle activity during natural eating. We investigated this issue by assessing participants’ subjective ratings (liking, wanting, valence, and arousal) and recording physiological measures, including EMG of the corrugator supercilii, zygomatic major, masseter, and suprahyoid muscles while they consumed gel-type solid foods (water-based gellan gum jellies) of diverse flavors. Ratings of liking, wanting, and valence were negatively correlated with corrugator supercilii EMG and positively correlated with masseter and suprahyoid EMG. These findings imply that subjective hedonic experiences during food consumption can be sensed using EMG signals from the brow and masticatory muscles.

Reading Food Experiences from the Face: Effects of Familiarity and Branding of Soy Sauce on Facial Expressions and Video-Based RPPG Heart Rate

Food experiences are not only driven by the food's intrinsic properties, such as its taste, texture, and aroma, but also by extrinsic properties such as visual brand information and the consumers' previous experiences with the foods. Recent developments in automated facial expression analysis and heart rate detection based on skin color changes (remote photoplethysmography or RPPG) allow for the monitoring of food experiences based on video images of the face. RPPG offers the possibility of large-scale non-laboratory and web-based testing of food products. In this study, results from the video-based analysis were compared to the more conventional tests (scores of valence and arousal using Emojis and photoplethysmography heart rate (PPG)). Forty participants with varying degrees of familiarity with soy sauce were presented with samples of rice and three commercial soy sauces with and without brand information. The results showed that (1) liking and arousal were affected primarily by the specific tastes, but not by branding and familiarity. In contrast, facial expressions were affected by branding and familiarity, and to a lesser degree by specific tastes. (2) RPPG heart rate and PPG both showed effects of branding and familiarity. However, RPPG heart rate needs further development because it underestimated the heart rate compared to PPG and was less sensitive to changes over time and with activity (viewing of brand information and tasting). In conclusion, this study suggests that recording of facial expressions and heart rates may no longer be limited to laboratories but can be done remotely using video images, which offers opportunities for large-scale testing in consumer science.

The Denied Pleasure of Eating: A Qualitative Study with Functionally Diverse People in Spain

This qualitative study explores the difficulties in experiencing eating-derived pleasure within a group of functionally diverse people, based on personal interviews and Grounded Theory. Understanding the feelings and subjective experiences of functionally diverse people can help develop new approaches to address their loss of pleasure and motivation regarding food intake. The study included 27 participants, aged between 18 and 75 years, all of whom had a functional deficiency that affected the occupational aspects of the eating process. Interviews were conducted in clinical settings and several centres for differently abled people. Four main themes emerged from the analysis: eating through obligation; fear of eating; the social life of food; and the importance of the taste and visual aesthetics of food. These themes underscore the importance of taking into account the phenomenological experiences of pleasure in the eating process.