Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics (19921, 5, 387-397

Nutrition knowledge, attitudes and fat

intake: application of the theory of
reasoned action

R. Shepherd and G. Towler*

AFRC Institute of Food Reseorch, Reading, UK

Validated questionnaires eliciting information on nutrition knowledge and

attitudes, related to fat intake from meat, meat products, dairy products and
fried foods, were completed by 538 subjects. There were high correlations
(ranging from 0.40 to 0.77) between the sums of belief-evaluations, attitudes,
intention and self-reported behaviour, with similar correlations for a subgroup
of males aged 35-54 years. Nutrition knowledge, showed some statistically
significant (but small) negative correlations with components of attitudes.
Females had higher nutrition knowledge scores and more negative views of the
foods than did males. Fat intake, measured using %day weighed intakes,
correlated with self-reported behaviour (r = 0.55, P < 0.01) in a subsample of 30
males, aged 35-54 years. Thus, nutrition knowledge seems less clearly related
to consumption of these foods than are more specific beliefs and attitudes.

Key words: attitudes, fat intake, food choice, theory of reasoned action.

Introduction Department of Health, 1988; National Aca-

Evidence exists suggesting links between
fat intake and coronary heart disease,
obesity and cancer. In the UK,reports by
The National Advisory Committee for Nu-
trition Education (NACNE, 1983) and the
Committee for Medical Aspects of Food
Policy (COMA, 1984) have made recom-
mendations for a reduction in fat in the
average diet. NACNE recommended a
short-term goal of 34%, and a long-term
goal of 30% energy from fat, while COMA
(1984) recommended a reduction to 35% of
energy from fat. These correspond with the
recommendations made in the USA (US
Correspondence: Dr R. Shepherd, AFRC Insti-
tute of Food Research, Earley Gate, White-
knights Road, Reading RG6 ZEF, UK.
* Present address: Centre for Health Policy
Research, University of East Anglia, Norwich
NR4 7TJ.UK.
demy of Sciences, 1989). A recent survey
on over 2000 adults, however, showed total
fat intake to exceed 40% of energy (Office
of Population Censuses and Surveys, 1990).
Much work in nutrition education has
concentrated on the association between
knowledge, attitudes and practice (or be-
haviour). Within this approach, knowledge
is seen as influencing behaviour through
attitudes; hence, increasing knowledge
will be likely to influence behaviour. How-
ever, the relationships between these vari-
ables have not been clear in many studies
(Shepherd, 1987). In particular, a meta-
analysis of some of these studies showed
that while there was a significant associa-
tion between attitudes and dietary intake,
the estimated correlation was only 0.18,
while that between knowledge and behav-
iour was even lower at 0.10 (Axelson et al.,
1985). Thus, the variance in behaviour

387
388 R. Shepherd and G. Towler
accounted for in these studies is only about
3 and I%, respectively.
Where the behaviour of interest is the
consumption of particular foods or the
intake of particular nutrients, the relation-
ships are even less clear, with studies
reporting only a small number of statisti-
cally significant relationships (Eppright et
al., 1970; Grotkowski & Sims, 1978) or none
at all (Werblow et al., 1978; Perron &
Endres, 1985). In research where the be-
haviour of interest is measured as some
score for general ‘nutritional practices’ (e.g.
eating three meals a day) rather than food
or nutrient intake, there does tend to be a
significant relationship between attitudes
and behaviour (Jalso et al., 1965; Schwartz,
1975; Carruth et ol., 1977; Foley et al., 1983;
Douglas & Douglas, 1984).
In social psychology, similar problems of
a lack of a clear attitude-behaviour link
led to the development of structured atti-
tude and belief models. One such approach
is the theory of reasoned action developed
by Fishbein & Ajzen (1975; Ajzen & Fish-
bein, 1980), which offers a coherent frame-
work within which to measure and relate
beliefs, attitudes and behaviour. This
model has attracted a good deal of atten-
tion and experimental validation and has
shown good predictive power for a variety
of different behaviours (Ajzen & Fishbein,
1980). In the particular case of food choice,
this model has shown clear relationships
between food choice and attitudes (Shep-
herd & Stockley, 1985, 1987; Shepherd &
Farleigh, 1986; Tuorila, 1987).
Within the theory of reasoned action,
behaviour is predicted by intention, which
in turn is predicted by attitudes and per-
ceived social pressure, This perceived so-
cial pressure has been found not to be
important in the food-choice context
(Shepherd & Stockley, 1985, 1987; Shep-
herd, 1989). Attitudes are predicted by the
sum of beliefs about outcomes of the
behaviour multiplied by evahations of
these outcomes:
attitude - 2 belief x evaluation.
We have previously used this approach to
investigate the intake of dietary fat and
showed good prediction of intention and
self-reported consumption of foods contri-
buting highly to fat in the diet (Shepherd &
Stockley, 1985, 1987). Subsequent work
has extended this to include beliefs and
evaluations for four food types (meat, meat
products, dairy products and fried foods)
(Towler h Shepherd, 1992) and shown that
the overall model predicts the intention to
consume the foods. Females, higher social-
class subjects and younger subjects had
more negative beliefs, attitudes and inten-
tions towards consuming the foods. Indivi-
dual belief-evaluation scores related to
health and taste were the most important
in predicting attitudes.
Shepherd b Stockley (1987) found that
nutrition knowledge did not correlate with
attitude, intention or behaviour. This was
possibly because the nutrition knowledge
questionnaire was too short and had not
been validated. A nutrition knowledge
questionnaire was subsequently developed
and tested for its ability to differentiate
between groups likely to be high and low
in nutrition knowledge (Towler & Shep-
herd, 1990). This questionnaire was used
in the present study. It includes four
sections on nutrient density, with the
section on fat of particular interest here,
along with a set of multiple-choice ques-
tions (see Towler & Shepherd, 1990, for the
full questionnaire).
The aims of the present study were to
test the Fishbein & Ajzen theory of rea-
soned action in relation to consumption of
foods contributing highly to fat in the diet
and to determine whether there is an
association with nutrition knowledge us-
ing this type of approach. In addition to
having a large group of subjects, a secon-
dary aim was to include a substantial
number of men in the age range 34-54
years, as these are at greatest risk from
future coronary heart disease (COMA,
1984) and therefore their attitudes towards
fat in foods are of particular interest.
Methods
Subjects were recruited from the work
force of a large insurance company. Five
hundred and thirty-eight subjects com-
 Nutrition knowledge, attitudes and fat intake
pleted questionnaires; however, a number
had missing responses on some items and
the analyses therefore vary in the number
of subjects included. The age and sex
profile of the subjects is shown in Table 1.
This sample was relatively homogeneous
in social class.
Table 1. Numbers of subjects in each age and
sex category
Age Male Female Total
15-24 77 81 158
25-34 116 64 180
3544 79 32 111
45-54 49 11 60
55-65 23 6 29
Total 344 194 538
The subjects completed the question-
naire in three sections. The first contained
demographic questions, including age, sex,
weight, height and position within the
company. The second part was the previ-
ously validated nutrition knowledge ques-
tionnaire (Towler & Shepherd, 1990). The
third part was an attitudes questionnaire
which was developed from previous work
(Shepherd & Stockley. 1985, 1987) and
tested on 240 quota sampled subjects
(Towler & Shepherd, 1992).
The nutrition knowledge questionnaire
included nutrient density sections on pro-
tein, carbohydrate, fat and dietary fibre,
and a section of nine multiple-choice ques-
tions. The nutrient density sections each
included a list of 20 foods and subjects
were asked to tick the ten foods that were
highest in, for example, protein content.
The comparisons were to be made on an
equal-weight basis. The selection of the
foods to include in these sections followed
extensive testing and validation (Towler &
Shepherd, 1990) and were foods which
were found to differentiate between
subjects with high or low nutrition know-
ledge.
The third section of the questionnaire
was designed to measure attitudes towards
the consumption of foods that contribute
389
highly to dietary fat, using part of the
Fishbein & Ajzen theory of reasoned ac-
tion. Meat, meat products, dairy products
and fried foods were the four food groups
chosen for the study, based on previous
work (Shepherd & Stockley, 1985, 1987).
The meat products and dairy products
categories included a short list of
examples, for example, ‘sausages, meat
pies, burgers, etc.’ for the meat products.
The four groups chosen contribute approx-
imately 70% of the total dietary fat in the
average UK diet. This section of the ques-
tionnaire contained 55 questions with
seven-point category scales with, apart
from the behaviour questions, only the end
categories labelled.
There was one behaviour question for
each of the four food groups. Subjects
responded using a seven-point frequency
scale from ‘less than once per month’ to
‘more than 2 or 3 times a day’. Subjects
were asked if they intended to eat the food
type during the next week, with the re-
sponse scale end points labelled ‘likely’
and ‘unlikely’.
There were three attitude questions for
each food group. Each had wording of the
type ‘My eating meat is good (or beneficial
or pleasant)’, and the end categories of the
seven-point category response scales were
labelled ‘strongly agree’ and ‘strongly dis-
agree’.
The belief items were derived from short
structured interviews on salient beliefs
about the four different food types, with a
separate group of 34 subjects following the
procedure described by Ajzen & Fishbein
(1980). Six salient beliefs were included for
each food group but the beliefs were not
the same for all food types. Three belief
items were common to all food types,
relating to the food being seen as healthy,
high in fat and tasting good. The three
remaining items for each food type de-
pended upon which beliefs were found
to be salient in the pre-interviews (see
Table 6). The response categories were
labelled ‘strongly agree’ and ‘strongly dis-
agree’ at the extremes. Each belief had
a corresponding outcome evaluation
statement, for example, ‘Food which is
high in fat is desirable’, again with re-
390 A. Shepherd and G. Towler
sponses from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly
disagree’.
Intake validation
There was a particular interest in this
study in males between the ages of 35 and
-
54 years. From this sex and age subgroup, a
validation group (n 30) was randomly
selected to measure dietary intake, with
weighed intakes completed over 3 days,
including 1 weekend day.
Each subject was supplied with a set of
digital scales (Soehnle), which weighed
amounts up to 1 kg to an accuracy of 2 g, a
record book, a plastic plate, full instruc-
tions and a written example. There was an
oral explanation of the weighing and re-
cording procedure prior to the study. Sub-
jects were to weigh and note down the
weight and a description of each food
eaten; composite dishes were to be entered
as ingredients if possible and the fullest
details of foods were requested. The foods
eaten were coded by experienced dietary
research staff using McCance and Widdow-
son’s The Composition of Foods (Paul &
Southgate, 1978). Analysis was done using
the Institute of Food Research nutrient
data base. Mean daily intakes were calcu-
lated for each subject and used in subse-
quent analyses.
Data analysis
In the nutrient density section of the
nutrition knowledge questionnaire, items
were scored as +I for a correct response
and -1 for an incorrect response. The
possible scores ranged from - 2 0 to +2O
for each of the four sections. The multiple-
choice maximum score was 14, although
again negative scores were possible. Thus,
the maximum-possible score for the whole
questionnaire was 94,with negative scores
also possible.
All of the belief, evaluation, attitude and
intention items were scored -3 to +3,
with +3 representing a positive predispo-
sition to the behaviour. The data were
combined using the formulae from Ajzen &
Fishbein (1980). The attitude responses
were summed to give a total attitude score.
The degree of association between com-
ponents was assessed using correlational
analysis and multiple regression, and the
differences between groups of subjects
were assessed using analysis of variance
(ANOVA).
Results
The correlations between the components
of the attitude model for the whole group
of subjects are shown in Table 2. These
results are very comparable with those
found previously using this same question-
naire (Towler & Shepherd, 1992). In the
previous study the relationships between
the components of the model were less
clear for dairy products.
The correlations were also calculated
separately for the male subjects aged 35-54
years (n -128). and the results are also
shown in Table 2. The pattern of the
correlations is very similar to that for the
group as a whole, showing this group to
have a similar structure of the relationship
between beliefs, attitudes and behaviour.
Similar correlations were found also for
the female subjects.
The mean scores and ranges for nutrition
knowledge are shown in Table 3; these are
shown for the nutrient density section for
protein, fat, carbohydrate and fibre, the
multiple-choice section, and the overall
total. These are comparable with scores
previously found for subjects not trained in
nutrition (Towler & Shepherd, 1990). The
correlations between the scores for total
nutrition knowledge (and the knowledge
components) against the sum of belief-
evaluations, attitude, intention and behav-
iour scores for each of the food types are
shown in Table 4. The correlations were
generally negative, with those subjects
having higher knowledge also having a
more negative predisposition toward con-
suming these foods. The correlations were
generally small although a number were
statistically, significantly different from
zero, given the large number of subjects
included in the analyses. The significant
correlations tended to be for the meat and
 Nutrition knowledge, attitudes and fat intake 391
Table 2. Correlation coefficients, for four food groups, between components of the
Eishbein & Ajzen theory of reasoned action for all subjects (n= 538), male subjects
aged between 35 and 54 years (n = 128). All significant at P c 0.001

Sum of
belief-evaluations Attitude Intention
V. V. V.
Food groups d.f. attitude intention behaviour

All subjects
Meat 502 0.70 0.64 0.73
Meat products 501 0.63 0.59 0.78
Dairy products 515 0.58 0.40 0.57
Fried foods 509 0.59 0.61 0.77
Males 35-54 years
Meat 116 0.65 0.51 0.55
Meat products 120 0.51 0.51 0.74
Dairy products 121 0.61 0.41 0.49
Fried foods 121 0.63 0.60 0.80

Table 3. Nutrition knowledge scores for the four nutrient

density sections (possible ranges of scores -20 to +20), the
multiple-choice section (maximum possible score 14)and the
total nutrition knowledge score (maximum possible score 94)

Knowledge section Mean Minimum Maximum

Protein 3.9 -12 16

Carbohydrate 3.5 -16 16
Fat 1.3 - 12 12
Fibre 4.6 -12 16
Multiple-choice 3.4 -2 10
Total score 16.8 -16 53

meat products sections of the attitudes
questionnaire.
Two-way ANOVAs, with factors of sex
(two levels) and age (five levels), were
calculated for each component of the atti-
tude model for each food type. The factors
of sex and age were confounded in the
present study, with unequal numbers of
males and females in the different age
groups (Table I). Therefore the analyses do
not allow testing of interactions between
these factors. There were significant differ-
ences between males and females on a
number of the variables, with females
generally having more negative attitudes
(Table 5). The exception was with dairy
products, where the sum of belief-evalua-
tions was non-significantly, and attitude
significantly, higher than for males. It is
interesting to note that this difference was
reversed for intention and behaviour. Ana-
lysis based upon age showed fewer differ-
ences, with the tendency for more negative
attitudes, etc. in the older subjects. This
was most marked for the dairy products.
Correlations were calculated between
the individual belief-evaluation items and
attitude scores for each of the four food
types (Table 6).The highest correlations in
all cases were for the items relating to taste
and health, with the food being seen as
high in fat having a lower correlation.
Other beliefs, such as expense and conve-
nience, were less correlated with attitudes.
A multiple regression was also calculated
for each food type between the individual
392 R. Shepherd and G. Towler -

Table 4. Correlation coefficients, for four food groups, between components of the Fishbein &
Ajzen theory of reasoned action and the scores on the nutrition knowledge questionnaire for the
four nutrient density sections (protein, carbohydrate, fat and fibre) and the total nutrition
knowledge score

Sum of
belief-
Knowledge score evaluations Attitude Intention Behaviour

Meat (d.f. = 502)

Protein -0.08 -0.07 -0.08 -0.07
Carbohydrate -0.12** -0.11* -0.06 - 0.08
Fat -0.13.. -0.15' ** -o.lQ*** -0.15***
Fibre -0.02 -0.04 -0.03 0.00
Total -0.14* *
-
-0.15." -0.16*** -0.16***
Meat products (d.f. 501)
Protein -0.09* -0.11* -0.09. -0.09*
Carbohydrate -0.16*** -O.18*** -0.09** -0.121
Fat -0.14** -0.20*** -0.20*** -0.17***
Fibre -0.06 0.00 -0.04 -0.03
Total -0.21*** -0.22*** - 0.19*** -0.18***
Dairy products (d.f.
Protein
- 515)
-0.03 -0.03 0.09* 0.06
Carbohydrate -0.02 -0.03 0.03 0.05
Fat 0.00 -0.07 - 0.08 -0.07
Fibre -0.03 -0.04 -0.05 -0.04
Total -
-
-0.03 -0.06 0.02 -0.01
Fried foods (d.f. 509)
Protein 0.02 -0.05 0.00 0.00
Carbohydrate -0.03 0.00 -0.04 -0.01
Fat -0.05 -0.06 -0.11* -0.05
Fibre 0.03 0.01 -0.01 0.05
Total -0.02 -0.04 -0.06 0.00

* p <0.05; ** P < 0.01;*** P <0.001.

belief-evaluation items and the attitude

score; this type of analysis takes account of
the collinearity between the belief-evalua-
tion items. The pattern of results is similar
to the simple correlations, again with
health and taste being the most important
beliefs. The multiple correlations predict-
ing attitude from the individual belief-
evaluation items were 0.78 for meat, 0.75
for meat products, 0.69 for dairy products
and 0.68 for fried foods.
0.49 (d.f. -
naire behaviour score for meat was
28, P < 0.01), for meat products
0.10 (d.f. = 28, NS), for dairy products 0.38
(d.f. = 28, P < 0.05) and for fried foods 0.39
[d.f. = 28, P < 0.05). Calculating a total
score for behaviour as the sum of these
four behaviour responses gave a correla-
tion with measured fat intake of r = 0.55
(d.f. = 28, P < 0.01).

Intake
Mean intakes of energy, protein, fat, car-
bohydrate and fibre for the 30 male sub-
jects taking part in the validation study are
shown in Table 7. The correlations
between fat intake and the question-
Discussion
The attitude model showed clear relation-
ships between the sum of belief-evalua-
tions, attitude, intention and self-reported
behaviour, both for the whole group and
for the subgroup of males. Nutrition
 Nutrition knowledge, attitudes and fat intake 393
Table 5. Mean scores and significance levels from analyses of
variance for sex. The possible ranges for the means are:
belief-evaluations -54 to +54, attitude - 9 to +9, intention 1 to 7
and behaviour 1 to 7

Mean

Male ' Female

Food type (n-344) (n-194) P

Meat
Belief-evaluations 6.9 5.3
Attitude 3.2 1.3 ***
Intention 6.4 5.4 ***
Behaviour 4.6 4.0 ***
Meat products
Belief-evaluations -2.3 -4.7
Attitude 0.7 -1.0 ***
Intention 5.3 4.0 ***
Behaviour 3.4 2.7 ***
Dairy products
Belief-evaluations 4.5 5.1
Attitude 3.3 4.1 *
Intention 6.6 6.3 **
Behaviour 5.1 5.0 t
Fried foods
Belief-evaluations -7.6 -14.2 ***
***
Attitude -3.4 -6.0
Intention 4.2 2.9 ***
Behaviour 3.0 2.5 ***
Nutrition knowledge
Total 15.7 18.6 **
Protein 3.8 4.0
Carbohydrate 3.2 4.2 *
Fat 0.9 2.2 ***
Fibre 4.5 4.8

tP(O.1; *P<0.05; **P<O.Ol; ***P<O.OOl.

knowledge was less clearly related to these
variables.
The total scores for nutrition knowledge
correlated with attitude and sum of belief
-evaluations for the meat and meat pro-
ducts sections of the questionnaire, but not
for dairy products or fried foods. In one
case for dairy products there was a signifi-
cant positive correlation with the score
from the protein nutrient density section
but this was significant only at P(O.05
and, given the large number of correlations
calculated, should not be viewed as impor-
tant. There was no tendency for the knowl-
edge on fat to be most negatively related to
the sum of belief-evaluations, attitude,
intention and behaviour scores. There was
also no tendency for the knowledge scores
to be most closely related to the sum of
belief-evaluations scores, even though
they are conceptually most closely related
to this part of the Fishbein & Ajzen theory
of reasoned action.
The overall results from this study con-
firm those of our previous study using this
attitude questionnaire (Towler & Shep-
herd, 1992), with good correspondence
between the components of the attitude
394 R. Shepherd and G. Towler
Table 6. Correlations between individual belief-evaluation items and
attitudes, along with the standardized (beta) coefficients and t values from
multiple regressions of the belief-evaluation items against attitudes

Simple Multiple regression

correlation
Belief item r Coefficient t

Meat
Healthy
(d.f. = 502)
0.54. * * 0.25
(d.f. -
497)
7.7***
Fat 0.28*** 0.12 4.l***
Taste 0.68*** 0.53 16.9***
Expense 0.20*** 0.04 1.2
Protein 0.36*** 0.12 4.l***
Vitamins 0.32*** 0.07 2.2*
Meat products (d.f. = 503) (d.f. = 498)
Healthy 0.52*** 0.27 7.8***
Fat 0.34*** 0.12 3.7***
Taste 0.64*** 0.51 15.6***
Expense 0.13** -0.01 -0.5
Convenience 0.11* -0.01 -0.3
Additives 0.35*** 0.16 4.8***
Dairy products (d.f. = 517) (d.f. = 512)
Healthy 0.56*** 0.42 12.2***
Fat 0.13** 0.18 5.2***
Taste 0.43*** 0.31 9.2***
Protein 0.37*** 0.16 4.8***
Vitamins 0.30"' 0.09 2.8***
Calories 0.03 -0.03 -0.9
Fried foods (d.f. = 512) (d.f. = 507)
Healthy 0.32*** 0.16 4.6***
Fat 0.32*** 0.13 3.7***
Taste 0.61*** 0.51 14.0***
Convenience 0.12** 0.01 0.3
Greasy 0.36** 0.15 4.2***
Smell 0.10' -0.03 -0.9

* P <0.05; ** P <0.01; ***P< 0.001.

Table 7. Means and standard deviations (s.d.) of nutrient intake for 30 male
subjects, aged 35-54 years, taking part in the validation study

Nutrient Units Mean intake s.d. Percentage of energy

Energy kcals 2672 526

MJ 11 2
Protein B 94 16 14
Fat s 114 24 38
Carbohydrate B 297 72 46
Fibre 8 23 8

model. The pattern of correlations was problems of using a category as wide as

very similar between the two studies, dairy products and in the present case
except that the correlations for dairy pro- there is probably a justification for splitting
ducts were higher in the present study. this down into spreadable fats, milk and
Towler & Shepherd (1992) discuss the cheese, as done by Shepherd & Stockley
 Nutrition knowledge, attitudes and fat intake
(1985),even though this would lead to a
longer questionnaire. Although actual be-
haviour was not measured on the total
sample of subjects, recorded fat intake
from a subsample showed good relation-
ships to fat intake from the questionnaire
measures, thus demonstrating the predic-
tive validity of these attitude and belief
measures for actual fat intake, in addition
to self-estimated consumption.
The results for the male subjects aged
35-54 years were very similar to those for
the total sample of subjects. Thus, males in
this‘ age group show a pattern of inter-
relationships between beliefs, attitude, in-
tention and behaviour similar to the whole
group of subjects.
There were sex differences in the
knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, intention
and behaviour measures. In general fe-
males had a niore negative predisposition
towards consuming meat, meat products,
dairy products and fried foods than did
males, and they had a correspondingly
higher knowledge. In many of the analyses
these differences were significant. In the
dairy products section, females had signifi-
cantly more positive attitudes, and a non-
significantly more positive sum of belief-
evaluations, despite having more negative
intentions and behaviour. This shows
some inconsistency between the belief-
evaluations, attitude, intentions and be-
haviour for this particular type of food.
This might be because the food category is
too wide and there may be some confusion
in the person’s mind as to the type of food
concerned.
The hnding of females having generally
more negative views towards foods contri-
buting to fat intake, closely parallels our
previous work with this questionnaire and
similar questionnaires (Shepherd & Stock-
ley, 1985,1987;Towler & Shepherd, 1992).
This may be a reflection of females having
a greater interest in, and knowledge of,
nutrition. In previous studies, females
have been found to have more positive
attitudes and behaviour in terms of
‘healthy eating’ (Sheiham et al., 1987),
higher preferences for low-fat milk pro-
ducts (Weathersbee et al., 1978), and for
elderly females to eat foods of a higher
395
‘nutritional quality’ than elderly males
(Hunter & Linn, 1979).
The age effects were less clear than
those for sex. There was a trend for lower
mean values and hence, more negative
attitudes and less reported consumption of
the high-fat foods among the older sub-
jects. This is contrary to previous findings
using this questionnaire with quota Sam-
pled subjects (Towler & Shepherd, 1992),
and using similar questionnaires (Shep-
herd & Stockley. 1985, 1987). Most prob-
ably the present results are due to con-
founding of age with other variables, in
particular seniority within the company as
more senior staff had been educated to a
higher level. As it was not possible in the
present sample to separate out the effects
of these variables, the age differences
found need to be treated with caution.
The correlations and regressions of the
individual belief-evaluation items against
attitudes gives an indication of the relative
importance of these beliefs in forming
attitudes and hence in determining behav-
iour. Taste was the most important belief
for three of the four foods, with health
most important for dairy products. The
beliefs associated with the fat content of
the foods was consistently less important
than these two. Other nutritional con-
siderations, such as protein and vitamins,
were important for the foods where they
were included, and additives were an
important consideration for meat products.
The beliefs on cost and convenience
tended to be unimportant in these analy-
ses. These results closely parallel our pre-
vious findings using this questionnaire
(Towler & Shepherd, 1992).
The nutrition knowledge questionnaire
gave only small correlations with the com-
ponents of the attitude model, as found in
previous studies (Axelson et a]., 1985;
Shepherd & Stockley, 1987). It would thus
appear that nutrition knowledge is related
to consumption of these specific food types
to only a limited degree. Other factors such
as those represented by the belief items
included in the questionnaire, and in parti-
cular taste, are also likely to play a pre-
dominant role in determining the con-
sumption of these foods which contribute
396 R. Shepherd and G. Towler
highly to fat in the diet. This has important
implications for attempts to modify diet, as
simply changing knowledge is unlikely to
have the desired effect. A more useful
strategy would be to address those beliefs
found to be important for t h e particular
types of foods. Although health is clearly
one of the major determining beliefs, the
sensory attributes of t h e foods are also
important and would need to b e addressed
in campaigns of nutrition education.
Acknowledgments
T h e work reported here was supported by
a grant from the Commission of the Euro-
pean Cammunities. The authors are grate-
ful to Norwich Union Insurance Company
for offering assistance in contacting sub-
jects and to the employees of Norwich
Union who took part in the study. Thanks
also to Brie Wharf, Julie Loughridge and
Heather Sarsby for assistance in conduct-
ing t h e weighed intakes.
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MS accepted July 1992