Grocery store podcast about omega‐3 fatty acids positively impacted shopping behavior

Abstract

The development of means for imparting nutrition education in a timely fashion is imperative given the ever‐changing food market. A grocery store podcast (digital audio media file that can be downloaded from the web onto any mp3 player) was developed to inform shoppers about the health benefits of omega‐3s (n‐3s) and how to increase the consumption of n‐3 rich foods. This study was designed to assess if, as a result of consumers listening to a podcast while shopping, they increased their awareness of n‐3 rich foods and altered their purchasing behaviors. This quasi‐experimental study employed a repeated measures survey design with a convenience sample of grocery shoppers (N=56) recruited from a popular grocery store in Central New Jersey. Shoppers completed a pre‐intervention survey, listened to the podcast as they shopped, then completed the post‐intervention survey, after which they received $10.00 compensation. The survey assessed their perceived ability to shop for and perceived importance of n‐3 rich foods. Most participants were female (n=44) with mean age of 41±15.3 years. Participants’ perceived ability to shop for n‐3 rich foods (t(55) = 6.27, p < .0001) and their perceived importance regarding buying n‐3 rich foods (t(55) = 3.38, p < .01) improved significantly. At least one n‐3 rich food purchase was reportedly made by 30% of participants after listening to the podcast and 79% indicated they planned such purchases in the future. The average number of 80 n‐3 rich foods was 1.52±0.8. These results show that podcasts may be an effective means of communicating nutrition education messages. More research with a larger sample size followed over a longer period is needed to verify these findings and assess long term behavior change.