Do consumers understand health claims on extra-virgin olive oil?

Health claims have been introduced in food labelling to support consumers' awareness of healthy food choices and to enhance a healthy diet. Even though many countries around the world have developed legislation and guidelines to regulate the introduction of health claims on food labels, there is the evidence that many consumers do not understand the meaning of these claims. This study analyses whether Italian consumers really understand authorized health claims on extra-virgin olive oil and what are the drivers of such understanding. An Olive Oil Health Claims Understanding index was constructed and embedded in a structured questionnaire, which was then administered to a representative sample of Italian household members who are responsible for food shopping (N = 1,030). Results from the survey showed that only 36% of the respondents understood the meaning of the authorized health claims on extra-virgin olive oil. Moreover, the findings confirmed that the understanding of health claims is related to socio-demographic, personal and psychographic characteristics of consumers, as well as to their attitudes toward using food as medicine. Outcomes also proved the central role of nutrition knowledge in affecting understanding of health claims.

Health literacy among patients with poor understanding of prescription drug label instructions in Saudi Arabia

Introduction

This study conducted to assess the health literacy level among patients who have poor understanding of the medications’ labels in Saudi Arabia.

Methods

This multi-center cross-sectional study was conducted on two phases. In the 1st phase, 511 patients waiting for their medications in the outpatient pharmacies of four major hospitals in Saudi Arabia were interviewed to assess their understanding ability of the labels of five of the commonly prescribed medications. Those participants who misunderstood the medications’ labels were enrolled in the 2nd phase of the study to assess their health literacy level. The validate Arabic Single Item Literacy Screener (SILS) was used to assess the health literacy level.

Analysis

The sample characteristics were described by mean and percentage. Both Chi-square test and logistic regression model were used to figure out the association between health literacy with the main affecting factors.

Results

Almost 38.6% (n = 197) of the participants in phase-1 misunderstood the medications’ labels. Nearly, 11.2% (n = 22) of them had low health literacy level. Participants who had low education level and low socioeconomic status were more likely to have low health literacy [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 2.94; 95% confidence interval (95%CI) (1.03–8.404); P-value = 0.044], [AOR = 5.28; 95%CI (1.118–24.943); P-value = 0.036], respectively.

Conclusion

Low health literacy was associated with low education level and low socioeconomic status of the patients.

Conceptual understanding and quantity inferences: a new framework for examining consumer understanding of food energy

OBJECTIVE

The study examined two components of consumer understanding of food energy information: understanding the concept of energy and its quantity. Using this new framework, we investigated whether activity-equivalent labels facilitated interpretations of food energy compared with calorie labels and whether an image format would strengthen this facilitative effect compared with text.

DESIGN

We assessed the effect of energy representation and format in a 2 (activity v. calories)×2 (image v. text) between-subjects design. Conceptual understanding of energy was measured in terms of level of understanding and personal engagement. Quantitative understanding was measured in terms of participants' estimations of a food's contribution to their recommended daily intake and perceptions of energy values as precise or single-bound interval estimates.

SETTING

The experiment was conducted online through Qualtrics.

SUBJECTS

Eight hundred and twelve participants (55 % female, age range 18-74 years) were recruited through a national survey panel in the UK.

RESULTS

Participants were twice more likely to have a stronger conceptual understanding of energy and four times more likely to personally engage with activity labels v. calorie labels. Participants did not differ across labels in their estimations of energy quantities; however, they inferred quantities to mean exactly the stated number of calories, but at least the stated activity duration. There were no added benefits in presenting an image over the text format.

CONCLUSIONS

Activity labels can facilitate conceptual understanding of energy, but may be subject to quantitative misinterpretations. Nutrition communication should consider what people infer from quantities represented on labels.