Consumer Behavior at Supermarkets during Grocery Shopping in Saudi Arabia: A National Observational Study

BACKGROUND

Use of nutrition facts labels can be associated with healthier eating behaviors; however, consumers currently face difficulty understanding these labels or do not use them often. Thus, improving healthy grocery shopping behaviors among consumers might increase the overall health of the community.

AIM

The study aims to explore consumers' behavior during grocery shopping and measure their basic knowledge regarding food product labels.

METHOD

A national observational study (cross-sectional) was carried out on a convenience sample of Saudi Arabian residents aged 18 years and above. The data were obtained from all 13 administrative regions in Saudi Arabia at three different major supermarkets in each region. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, and binary logistic regression was used to investigate behavior variables.

RESULTS

A total of 12,675 participants were observed; of those, 52.2% did not interact with the product before putting it in their shopping cart. The study found that the production date (66.6%) and expiry date (51%) were the most frequently checked aspects of food labels; they were checked more frequently than nutrition facts (29%). Furthermore, there was a low level of dietary knowledge among consumers and a moderate level of believing food packages and media claims.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that the Saudi community's understanding of food product information is limited and greater awareness and community education campaigns are required to improve the use of nutritional labels and increase nutritional knowledge.

The effectiveness of electronic pulsed soft tissue vibration compared with topical anaesthesia in reducing the pain of injection of local anaesthetics in adults: a randomized controlled split-mouth clinical trial

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an electronic hand-held pulsed vibration device on the pain of local analgesia (LA) injection and physiologic changes. A prospective randomized controlled clinical trial using split-mouth (crossover) design was implemented. The control-side injection was performed after using topical anaesthesia. The experimental side injection was carried out without topical anaesthesia, but with the aid of a switched-on vibration device. Overall, 332 dental LA injections were given to 166 patients for routine exodontia. The pain at penetration and pain during injection were significantly lower in the experimental sides (vibrations sides) compared with those of the controls (P<0.001). Similarly, the heart rate changes at penetration and during injections were significantly lower in the experimental sides (P<0.001). The vibration device was clinically and statistically more effective than topical anaesthesia in the reduction of dental injection pain in adults, measured subjectively and objectively, regardless of the gender, injection technique (infiltration or block) or anxiety level.