Food advertising, children's food choices and obesity: interplay of cognitive defences and product evaluation: an experimental study.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the role of product evaluations, nutritional and persuasion knowledge on children's food choices conducted because of limited evidence about the role of product evaluations on consumer choices in conjunction with cognitive defences. DESIGN: A randomised controlled 2 × 2 factorial experiment with an exposure to a food and a control (toy) advertisement conducted in a non-laboratory setting at an annual event traditionally visited by families. SUBJECTS: Children aged 7-13 years with biometric/weight data representative of the general Australian population. MEASUREMENTS: Height and weight (converted into body mass index z-scores) measured in addition to children's nutritional and persuasion knowledge, product evaluations, age and gender. RESULTS: The factors that undermine children's cognitive defences relate to taste, social appeal of foods and low nutritional and persuasion knowledge. An interplay between the above-mentioned factors was also observed, identifying four groups among young consumers, alluding to a complex and at times impulsive nature of children's decisions: (1) knowledgeable children with less positive product evaluations choosing a healthy snack; (2) knowledgeable but hedonism-oriented children seeking peer conformity choosing an advertised product; (3) knowledgeable children who chose a snack belonging to the same product category; and (4) less knowledgeable children with positive product evaluations and low nutritional knowledge choosing snacks from the advertised product category. Obese children were more likely to belong to a cluster of less knowledgeable and hedonism-oriented children. CONCLUSIONS: The problem of consumption of less healthy foods is complex and multiple factors need to be considered by health practitioners, social marketers and parents to address the issue of childhood obesity. Nutritional knowledge alone is not sufficient to ensure children make healthier food choices and emphasis should also be placed on persuasion knowledge education, targeting of peer norms, self-efficacy and stricter regulation of advertising aimed at children.

Impact on the Australian Quitline of new graphic cigarette pack warnings including the Quitline number.

BACKGROUND: In March 2006, Australia introduced graphic pictorial warnings on cigarette packets. For the first time, packs include the Quitline number. OBJECTIVE: To measure the combined effect of graphic cigarette pack warnings and printing the Quitline number on packs on calls to the Australian Quitline service. METHODS: Calls to the Australian Quitline were monitored over 4 years, 2 years before and after the new packets were introduced. RESULTS: There were twice as many calls to the Quitline in 2006 (the year of introduction), as there were in each of the preceding 2 years. The observed increase in calls exceeds that explained by the accompanying television advertising alone. While call volume tapered back in 2007, it remained at a level higher than before the introduction of new packets. No change was observed in the proportion of first time callers. CONCLUSION: Introducing graphic cigarette packet warnings and the Quitline number on cigarette packets boosts demand for Quitline services, with likely flow on effects to cessation.

Can you elaborate on that? Addressing participants' need for cognition in computer-tailored health behavior interventions.

Computer-tailored interventions, which deliver health messages adjusted based on characteristics of the message recipient, can effectively improve a range of health behaviours. Typically, the content of the message is tailored to user demographics, health behaviours and social cognitive factors (e.g., intentions, attitudes, self-efficacy, perceived social support) to increase message relevance, and thus the extent to which the message is read, considered and translated into attitude and behaviour change. Some researchers have suggested that the efficacy of computer-tailored interventions may be further enhanced by adapting messages to suit recipients' need for cognition (NFC) - a personality trait describing how individuals tend to process information. However, the likely impact of doing so, especially when tailored in conjunction with other variables, requires further consideration. It is possible that intervention effects may be reduced in some circumstances due to interactions with other variables (e.g., perceived relevance) that also influence information processing. From a practical point of view, it is also necessary to consider how to optimally operationalise and measure NFC if it is to be a useful tailoring variable. This paper aims to facilitate further research in this area by critically examining these issues based on relevant theories and existing evidence.