Abstract
The predominant use of junk food in our societies is continuously held responsible for the obese body physiques and overweight among the kids and adolescents. The current supportive environments where organic foods are limited, and new processed foods have been brought to the market with more variant tastes and acceptability for the kids and adolescents that have diverged their eating patterns. It has significantly contributed to the health issues and growth discrepancies of the users. However, the awareness of the food contents is an important milestone for understanding the risks associated with the usage of junk foods. A quantitative approach has been used in this study to measure the effect of perceived severity, vulnerability and fear on the junk food eating behaviors and ultimately on the obesity. The moderating role of product knowledge hiding has also been measured on the relationship of junk food eating and obesity. Structural equation modeling is used using the software Smart-PLS for measuring the hypothesis with a sample size of 228 selected through purposive sampling. The sample consisted of kids and adolescents who were reached on purpose for data collection. The current study has explored the role of perceived severity, vulnerability and the fear of using junk foods which have been found as a negative effect on junk food eating behavior which is positively associated with obesity among the kids and adolescents. The result of study shows that perceived threat has a negative effect on the junk food eating behavior of the adolescents. However, the positive relationship of junk food eating behavior with obesity can be decreased if the information about the products is not hidden. This study will be useful for making the consumers aware of the product knowledge hiding of the junk food usage. Moreover, it will help the users in creating understanding of risks allied with the use of junk food which may be addressed in order to avoid obesity issues in the kids and adolescents globally.
Highlights
There is a growing public interest in health, the rising incidence of diet-related non-communicable disorders, such as obesity, can still be seen
This research is based on the following conceptual model for the analysis of perceived health threats on developing junk food eating behavior leading to obesity with a moderating effects of product knowledge hiding
The kids and adolescents were reached on purpose for data collection. This was an adequate group for obesity to be checked as they are among the group who are highly involved in junk food eating
Summary
There is a growing public interest in health, the rising incidence of diet-related non-communicable disorders, such as obesity, can still be seen. PMT has been used to explore a variety of behaviors, including influenza vaccine injection, H1N1 pandemic prevention, cancer prevention and sun protection behaviors, SARS prevention behaviors, and communicable diseases and skin cancer prevention behaviors (Ezati Rad et al, 2021) Based on this theory and its components, our research was designed for analysis of perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, and fear about eating junk food leading to obesity. It is evident from the literature that certain behaviors could mediate the relationships between vulnerability, obesity, severity and fear but no prior research has focused on evaluating the mediating role of junk food eating behavior This leads to utilizing this behavior as mediator in our context of the study. This research is based on the following conceptual model (see Figure 1) for the analysis of perceived health threats on developing junk food eating behavior leading to obesity with a moderating effects of product knowledge hiding
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