Promoting Healthier Food Choices

1
Promoting Healthier Food Choices

• Dr. Chris Armitage
• Centre for Research in Social Attitudes
• Department of Psychology
• University of Sheffield

2
Overview

• Evidence base for promoting healthier food
  choices systematic reviews
• Study 1 what determines healthy food choices in
  schools?
• Study 2 overcoming habits to decrease fat
  consumption in adults
• Conclusions and future work

3
Systematic Reviews

• there are insufficient studies to draw firm
  conclusions about which intervention approaches
  are more effective than others (p. 446, Lemmens
  et al., 2008)
• the overall methodological quality of the
  studies was poor (p. 408, Benedict Arterburn,
  2008)
• make no reference to the content of the
  interventions (e.g., Flodmark et al., 2006
  Summerbell et al., 2008)

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Ideally, studies should

• Make explicit reference to the content of
  interventions based on theories of behaviour
  change (e.g., Michie Abraham, 2004)
• Use scientific procedures for evaluating the
  efficacy and/or effectiveness of interventions
• Valid and reliable measures of key variables
• Appropriate research design
• Subject to peer review

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Study 1 determinants of healthy food choice in
schools

• 124 children aged 7-11 (M 8.95) from an inner
  city school
• 66 male, 58 female

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Procedure

• Prospective correlational study
• Typical lunch time dietary intake
• Theory-based psychological measures (scaled from
  1 to 5) adapted for the present sample
• What influenced your choice?

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Descriptive Statistics
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Predicting Fruit and Vegetable Intake
Attitudes
Social Norms
F Veg Intake (2)
Perceived Control
Motivation
F Veg Intake (1)
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What Influenced Your Choice?
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Problems With Behaviour Change

• If standard targets for intervention are not
  predictive of behaviour, how can interventions be
  effective?
• 1 make people more receptive to health
  information (e.g., peer education)
• 2 disrupt the influence of habits on behaviour
  (e.g., implementation intentions)

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Implementation Intentions

• Implementation intentions are specific kinds of
  plans that ensure that cues in the environment
  will trigger an appropriate behavioural
  response in the future
• Implementation intentions mimic the effects of
  habits because they increase peoples speed of
  responding, increase information processing
  efficiency, and operate outside conscious
  awareness
• (Gollwitzer, 1999)

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Pickering, North Yorks, from http//homepage.ntlw
orld.com/tomals/index8.html
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Implementation Intentions Mechanisms

• For example, I walk the same route to work
  everyday, passing a general store.
• Approximately three times per year, I need to
  call in at the shop, but often forget because the
  habit of walking past them is so deeply
  ingrained.
• But if I form an implementation intention, Im
  much better at remembering.
• If Im walking past the general store, then I
  will buy a plant pot

14
Pickering, North Yorks, from http//homepage.ntlw
orld.com/tomals/index8.html
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Pickering, North Yorks, from http//homepage.ntlw
orld.com/tomals/index8.html
http//www.thegardensuperstore.co.uk/acatalog/ Hea
vyweight_Sankey_Plant_Pots-Large.gif
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Study 2 Implementation Intentions to Reduce Fat

• 234 participants representative of UK adults were
  recruited (124 women, 110 men aged between 18
  and 75 years)
• A randomised controlled design was used dietary
  intake was assessed at both baseline and follow-up

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Manipulation

• Participants in the experimental group received
  the following written instructions at the end of
  their questionnaires
• We want you to plan to eat a low-fat diet during
  the next month. You are free to choose how you
  will do this, but we want you to formulate your
  plans in as much detail as possible. Please pay
  particular attention to the situations in which
  you will implement these plans.

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Results
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Summary

• The implementation intention intervention
  disrupted peoples habits and significantly
  decreased fat intake across a month-long time
  period
• The reduction in the proportion of calories
  derived from fat found in the experimental group
  would equate with the saving of approximately
  14,500 lives per year in the US alone (see Rose,
  1985, 1990)
• Implementation intentions offer an effective
  means to promote dietary change and have a number
  of significant advantages over other types of
  intervention

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Our Research Shows That Implementation Intentions

• work in children
• work better than just asking people to form
  plans
• can be self-generated or experimenter-provided
• work best in highly motivated people
• require minimal engagement for them to work

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Conclusions

• A scientific approach to behaviour change is
  extremely important
• Peoples healthy eating does not necessarily
  increase as a result of education
• People are not necessarily shackled by their
  habits
• Further work needs to be done in applying
  psychological principles of behaviour change in
  practice

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more effort is needed to ensure that
researchers, policy makers and
practitioners work together more effectively
http//farm3.static.flickr.com/2352/1540148489_3a5
9e64809.jpg
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Acknowledgements

• Adam Goody
• Anna Prendergast