There is now unequivocal evidence that dietary behaviour is related to illness and risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. Attempts to improve the nation's diet are based on providing information, assuming that given more information, the public will choose healthier diets. Many studies indicate, however, that nutrition knowledge has little association with dietary behaviour; but a review of the literature reveals that nutrition knowledge has been inadequately measured. In addition, dietary behaviour has been assessed in terms of food intake and not in relation to changes in, or readiness to change, food intake. Following the Introduction, this research begins, in Chapter 2, by reviewing the literature measuring nutrition knowledge. It is found that while many studies measure knowledge, typically the measure forms only part of the study which assesses either a particular subpopulation or a particular aspect of nutrition. In consequence, questionnaires are designed for a one-off and specific purpose and little attention is paid to the psychometric properties of the instrument. Dietary behaviour is measured with one of the well-established methods of assessing intake, the problems of which are acknowledged in the literature. Chapter 3 describes these methods with their shortcomings and use in psychological research. In response to these reviews, a comprehensive nutrition knowledge questionnaire was developed (in 1994) and intake was conceptualised in terms of dietary change, in keeping with psychologists' role in nutrition. Following the development and pilot study of this questionnaire (Chapter 4), its validity and reliability were assessed further in Chapter 5, with positive results. Significant differences were found between criterion groups (dietetic and computer science students), providing evidence of construct validity. Internal consistency correlations ranged from 0.50 to 0.92 and test-retest reliability correlations ranged from 0.80 to 0.98. This measure was then used (Chapter 6) to assess the level of nutrition knowledge among a large representative sample of British adults in a postal survey (in 1995). Nutrition knowledge was found to be poor concerning the dietary recommendations for meat, starchy foods, fruit and vegetables; the different types of fat (saturated, poly- and monounsaturated); and associations between diet and diseases, such as fruit and vegetables, heart disease and cancer. Both stages of change (using Prochaska and DiClemente's model) and consumption of fat, fruit and vegetables (to test the stages' validity) were also assessed as measures of dietary behaviour. Most respondents replied that they had been limiting their fat intake for more than 6 months, but not been thinking of increasing their fruit and vegetable intake. Multivariate analyses showed that being female, having more educational qualifications and being in a higher socioeconomic class were predictive of knowing more about nutrition and having a healthier dietary behaviour. Relationships between nutrition knowledge, stages of change and dietary intake were examined in Chapter 7 and significant associations identified. In contrast to this cross-sectional research, the final study in Chapter 8 was longitudinal and examined changes in nutrition knowledge and dietary behaviour over a one-year period (from 1993 to 1994). This study aimed to provide information on the extent to which healthier changes in dietary intake are related to increases in nutrition knowledge. While changes occurred in dietary intake (fat and sugar intake decreased significantly, the increases in fruit and vegetable consumption were insignificant), knowledge scores remained unchanged. The final chapter discusses the key findings of this research, its implications and areas worthy of future investigation. For example, the results from this research suggest that knowledge is an important factor in food choice and should not be discounted as a part of health promotion. It may also be useful to integrate the construct of knowledge into the social cognition models of dietary choice or indeed to develop a new model to include knowledge along with motivational constructs from the social cognition models.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Communication

No description available.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Univ., 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Dentistry / Master / Master of Dental Surgery

No description available.

Hydroxytyrosol (HT) has been found to be a potent antioxidant and hypocholesterolemic agent in various animal models of disease including dyslipidemia, atherosclerosis, and diabetes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of hydroxytyrosol (HT) supplementation on the lipid profile and metabolic risk markers in recreationally active men. Sixty-one (n = 61) subjects (21.46 ± 0.22 yrs, 179.46 ± 0.79 cm, 78.91 ± 1.19 kg) consumed HT in either a high dose (HI, 150 mg HT; n = 22), a low dose (LO, 50 mg HT; n = 20), or a placebo (PLA; n = 19) every day for 6 weeks. Blood draws were obtained at baseline, 14, 28, and 39 days under fasting conditions. Analyzed were the components of the plasma lipid profile: total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLc), the TC:HDLc fraction, low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc), very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDLc), and triglycerides (Tg); and markers of metabolic risk: uric acid, lipase, hemoglobin (Hb), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and blood glucose (BG). The primary finding was that HT, in either HI or LO dosages did not cause clinically meaningful changes in the blood lipid profile or markers of metabolic risk. Subjects in the HI group experienced a small big significant increase in fasting blood glucose, while those in the PLA group experienced a significant increase in VLDLc concentration. In both cases, however, the mean values remained within their respective healthy reference ranges. Whether these changes would persist beyond the 6-week course of this study is not known. While no improvements were seen in any of our selected measures, these results indicate that HT supplementation, ranging from 50 to 150 mg/day, is safe to consume for durations up to 6 weeks in healthy young men. By maintaining the lipid profile and metabolic risk markers within a healthy range, it is possible that HT may impart a degree of protection against cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk, but such an effect may only be apparent when the plasma lipid and/or metabolic risk profile is abnormal. / text

No description available.

A social ecological framework is used in this study to identify health behaviours that have the potential to affect physical activity levels in Interlake youth. Data from two cycles of the Youth Health Survey (YHS) were used to identify which demographic, individual, social and environmental factors were associated with physical activity levels of youth. Boys were found to have higher rates of physical activity than girls. As students got older their physical activity rates declined. Sex, active transportation to school, screen time, healthy eating, self perception of body image, feelings of hopelessness and feeling close to people at school were significantly associated with physcial activity levels. Important differences have been identified between the individual, social and environmental factors that can potentially affect physical activity levels of youth based on the data produced by the Interlake YHS. Individual factors have the strongest association with physical activity levels, followed by environmental factors.

No description available.