The relationship between nutrition knowledge and food behaviour among Finnish homemakers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand how the different domains of nutrition knowledge are related to health‐oriented food behaviour and how both of these are related to socioeconomic factors. The studied population of homemakers (n = 647) answered a mailed questionnaire gathering socioeconomic data, food use data and data on nutrition knowledge. Items measuring both food behaviour and nutrition knowledge were chosen in the areas of fats and dietary energy because of their importance in the Finnish nutrition recommendations. The household context was chosen to increase the understanding of the knowledge‐behaviour relationship in everyday settings. The major findings were: nutrition ‐ related beliefs were the best predictors of health‐oriented food behaviour (h.o.f.b.); factual knowledge had only weak connections with h.o.f.b.; education and income had stronger connections with h.o.f.b. than factual knowledge; and the connection of practical knowledge oriented with childhood implied that a homemaker's food behaviour was linked with habits adopted from childhood.