School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Australia.
Health Psychol. 2012 Mar;31(2):250-9. doi: 10.1037/a0025852. Epub 2011 Nov 7.
Approximately 48 million Americans are affected by foodborne illness each year. Evidence suggests that the application of health psychology theory to food safety interventions can increase behaviors that reduce the incidence of illness such as adequately keeping hands, surfaces and equipment clean. This aim of this pilot study was to be the first to explore the effectiveness of a food safety intervention based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB).
Young adult participants (N = 45) were randomly allocated to intervention, general control or mere measurement control conditions. Food safety observations and TPB measures were taken at baseline and at 4-week follow-up. Within and between group differences on target variables were considered and regression analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between condition, behavior and the TPB intention constructs; attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control (PBC).
TPB variables at baseline predicted observed food safety behaviors. At follow-up, the intervention led to significant increases in PBC (p = .024) and observed behaviors (p = .001) compared to both control conditions. Furthermore, correlations were found between observed and self-reported behaviors (p = .008).
The pilot intervention supports the utility of the TPB as a method of improving food safety behavior. Changes in TPB cognitions appear to be best translated to behavior via behavioral intentions and PBC. Further research should be conducted to increase effectiveness of translating TPB variables to food safety behaviors. The additional finding of a correlation between self-reported and observed behavior also has implications for future research as it provides evidence toward the construct validity of self-reported behavioral measures.
每年约有 4800 万美国人受到食源性疾病的影响。有证据表明，将健康心理学理论应用于食品安全干预措施可以增加减少疾病发生的行为，如保持手部、表面和设备清洁。本研究的目的是首次探索基于计划行为理论（TPB）的食品安全干预措施的有效性。
将年轻成年参与者（N=45）随机分配到干预组、一般对照组或单纯测量对照组。在基线和 4 周随访时进行食品安全观察和 TPB 测量。考虑了目标变量的组内和组间差异，并进行了回归分析，以确定条件、行为与 TPB 意图结构（态度、主观规范、感知行为控制（PBC））之间的关系。
基线时的 TPB 变量预测了观察到的食品安全行为。在随访时，与两个对照组相比，干预组的 PBC（p=0.024）和观察到的行为（p=0.001）显著增加。此外，观察到的行为和自我报告的行为之间存在相关性（p=0.008）。
该试点干预措施支持 TPB 作为改善食品安全行为的一种方法。TPB 认知的变化似乎通过行为意向和 PBC 更好地转化为行为。应进一步开展研究，以提高将 TPB 变量转化为食品安全行为的效果。自我报告行为和观察到的行为之间的相关性的额外发现也对未来的研究具有意义，因为它为自我报告行为测量的结构效度提供了证据。
