Personal values, marketing attitudes and nutrition trust are associated with patronage of convenience food outlets in the Asia-Pacific region: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: An online cross-sectional survey examined the relationships between the demographic characteristics, personal values, trust in sources of nutrition information and the use of convenience food outlets among middle-class household food providers in the Asia-Pacific region.

METHODS: The survey was administered to 3945 household food providers in Melbourne, Singapore, Shanghai, Vietnam and Indonesia in late 2013. Information about demographics, personal values, trust in sources of nutrition information and use of convenience food outlets was elicited. Exploratory factor analysis, two-step clustering and logistic regression were employed.

RESULTS: The analyses found that the use of convenience food outlets was positively related to hedonist values and trust in food industry sources of nutrition information. However, lesser use of convenience food outlets and trust in health sources of nutrition information was associated with traditional (community-oriented) values.

CONCLUSIONS: Further replication and extension of these findings would be useful. However, they suggest that improvements in the quality of foods sold in convenience food outlets combined with stronger regulation of food marketing and long-term food education are required.