An Examination of Correlates and Effects Associated with a Concise Measure of Consumers' Nutrition Knowledge

Abstract

This article presents a 6‐item objective measure of nutrition knowledge and focuses on its relationship to consumer perceptions of nutritional information provided onfood labels and the role of knowledge in affecting product purchase likelihood evaluations. Supportfor the known group validityof the knowledge measure is offeredfrom comparisons of professional nutritionists and senior level nutrition/dietitian students with general samples of consumers. Resultsfrom the two main studies indicate that consumers with higher levels of nutrition knowledge have stronger motivation to acquire nutrition information and have morefavorable attitudes toward nutrition information than consumers with lower nutrition knowledge. Also, the knowledge measure is shown to moderate effects of suchfactors as product nutritional value and nutrition label format on consumers' reports of product purchase likelihood. These results indicate the importance of assessing the role of nutrition knowledge when examining consumers' comprehension and attitudes toward nutrition label information and the effects of label information on consumers' purchase likelihood evaluations.