2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Online Program

334131
Health and Nutrition Label Use: A Gender-Specific Analysis


Wednesday, November 4, 2015 : 10:50 a.m. - 11:10 a.m.

Dejun Su, PhD, Department of Health promotion, Social and Behavioral Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
Junmin Zhou, Department of Health Promotion, Social & Behavioral Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
Hannah Jackson, MPH, PhD, Center for Reducing Health Disparities, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
Ghada Soliman, MD, PhD, RD, LMNT, Health Promotion, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
Terry Huang, PhD, MPH, CPH, City University of New York, Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, New York, NY
Amy Yaroch, PhD, Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, Omaha, NE
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Background: In 2014 the FDA proposed a series of changes to the 1992 guidelines on nutrition facts labeling in the hope that the new changes would help consumers make more informed food choices. So far few studies have examined the association between nutrition label use and health.

Purpose: To determine the association between nutrition label use and health, and assess if the association differs between men and women.

Methods: Based on data from a population based, random sample survey (N=1,503) in Nebraska in 2013, chi-square tests were used to examine bivariate associations between selected health variables and nutrition label use respectively in the whole sample, males, and females, followed by logistic regression analysis to estimate these associations in a multivariate framework.

Results: A U-shaped relationship between self-rated health (SRH) and nutrition label use was observed among both males and females in that excellent and poor SRH were both associated with a higher chance of reading nutrition labels than the three SRH categories in-between.  However, this U-shaped relation turned out to be more salient among males than among females. Among males, being obese was associated with a higher odds of reading nutrition label (OR=2.63, p<0.001). This association, however, was not statistically significant among females.

Conclusion: The association between health and nutrition label use was more pronounced among males than among females. Nutrition education can potentially benefit from factoring in the linkages between health, use of nutrition labels, and gender differences in these linkages.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related education
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines

Learning Objectives:
Analyze the association between nutrition label use and health, and assess if the association differs between men and women.

Keyword(s): Nutrition, Gender

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been a research scientist with emphasis in public health and health behavior analysis pertaining to chronic disease and diet behaviors. And I have conducted both qualitative and quantitative studies on effects of health behaviors on development of chronic diseases.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 5101.0: Use of Food and Menu Labeling to Influence Dietary Behavior