Consumer Nutrition Knowledge and Dietary Behavior in Urban Ethiopia: A Comprehensive Study

This paper studies the association between nutrition knowledge and consumer dietary behavior using large survey data from 996 respondents in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We find that health was the most important factor in individuals' food choice. However, most consumers were found to have imperfect...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology of food and nutrition 2021-03, Vol.60 (2), p.244-256
Main Authors: Melesse, Mequanint B., van den Berg, Marrit
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Diet
dietary diversity
Eating behavior
Food
harmful food taboos
healthy eating attitudes
Nutrition
Nutrition knowledge
Taboos
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Summary:This paper studies the association between nutrition knowledge and consumer dietary behavior using large survey data from 996 respondents in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We find that health was the most important factor in individuals' food choice. However, most consumers were found to have imperfect understanding of the link between food and health. Especially, the causes and consequences of obesity were poorly understood. A considerable proportion of respondents also endorsed harmful food taboos. We found that nutrition knowledge was positively associated with more diversified diets and healthy eating attitudes and practices. Individuals with higher levels of nutrition knowledge were also more likely to reject harmful food taboos.
ISSN:0367-0244
1543-5237
DOI:10.1080/03670244.2020.1835655