Institute of Food and Nutrition Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing 100081, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jun 10;18(12):6307. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18126307.
Since 2013, China has implemented a nutrition label regulation that aims to provide essential nutrition information through nutrition facts tables labeled on the back of food packages. Yet, the relationship between people's nutrition knowledge and their nutrition label use remains less clear. This study adopted the structural equation modeling approach to analyze a nationally representative survey of 1500 Chinese individuals through the cognitive processing model, interrelated nutrition knowledge, attention to nutrition information on the nutrition facts table, comprehension of nutrition information, food choice and dietary intake. It was found that nutrition knowledge positively influenced attention to nutrition information; a better comprehension of nutrition information, which could benefit healthier food choices, did not relate to a higher level of attention to that information; dietary intake was affected significantly by nutrition knowledge, but it had little impact on food choice. The results signify that nutrition knowledge hardly supports nutrition facts table use among the Chinese people, mainly due to incomprehensible labeled information. Therefore, it emphasizes the need to enhance people's comprehension through front-of-package labels and corresponding smartphone applications.
自 2013 年以来，中国实施了营养标签规定，旨在通过在食品包装背面标注营养成分表提供基本的营养信息。然而，人们的营养知识与他们对营养标签的使用之间的关系仍然不太清楚。本研究采用结构方程建模方法，通过认知加工模型，对中国 1500 名个体进行了全国代表性调查，分析了相关营养知识、对营养成分表上营养信息的关注、对营养信息的理解、食物选择和饮食摄入之间的关系。研究结果表明，营养知识对关注营养信息有积极影响；更好地理解营养信息，这有助于更健康的食物选择，但与更高水平的关注信息无关；饮食摄入受到营养知识的显著影响，但对食物选择的影响较小。研究结果表明，营养知识在中国人群中几乎不能支持营养标签的使用，主要是因为标签信息难以理解。因此，有必要通过包装正面标签和相应的智能手机应用程序来增强人们的理解能力。
