Soon Jan Mei, Vanany Iwan, Abdul Wahab Ikarastika Rahayu, Abdullah Sani Norrakiah, Hamdan Ruhil Hayati, Jamaludin Mohd Hafiz
Faculty of Allied-Health and Wellbeing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE, UK.
Department of Industrial Engineering, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Surabaya, 60111, Indonesia.
Food Control. 2022 Aug;138:109029. doi: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2022.109029. Epub 2022 Apr 14.
The threat of COVID-19 has altered consumers shopping behaviour and increased consumers' willingness to purchase food using online food delivery services. Consumers were more likely to practice strict hand hygiene measures and were concerned with food safety. Such behaviours were likely driven by the fear and threat of contracting COVID-19. This study aims to use Protective Motivation Theory (PMT) to investigate how COVID-19 affects food shopping and food safety behaviour. An online, cross-sectional study was conducted in Indonesia and Malaysia to determine the protective motivation to engage in three food shopping and hygiene practices such as i) Safe food shopping behaviour; ii) Hand hygiene and avoiding cross contamination; and iii) Use of online food delivery services. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Spearman rho's correlation and binary logistic regression. A total of 1180 responses were received of which 1129 were valid. Gender was identified as a significant predictor across all food safety behaviours during COVID-19. Response efficacy and self-efficacy were significant predictors for food shopping behaviour while perceived severity significantly predicted hand hygiene practices after shopping. Age, frequency of food preparation and shopping, perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, response efficacy and self-efficacy were significant predictors for use of online food delivery services. Our findings suggest that women were more likely to engage in protective measures during food shopping, carry out hand hygiene practices after shopping and use online food delivery services during COVID-19. Participants with higher response and self-efficacy scores were more likely to shop from markets or shops with high hygiene standards while participants who perceived COVID-19 as a serious threat were more likely to clean and sanitise their hands after shopping. Participants also believed that the use of online food delivery services helps to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection. However, foods should be purchased from trusted restaurants or takeaways. This is the first study to use Protection Motivation Theory to explore consumers' food shopping, hand hygiene and online food delivery practices during COVID-19.
新冠疫情的威胁改变了消费者的购物行为，增强了消费者使用在线食品配送服务购买食品的意愿。消费者更有可能采取严格的手部卫生措施，并关注食品安全。此类行为可能是由感染新冠病毒的恐惧和威胁所驱动。本研究旨在运用保护动机理论（PMT）来探究新冠疫情如何影响食品购物和食品安全行为。在印度尼西亚和马来西亚开展了一项在线横断面研究，以确定参与三种食品购物及卫生行为的保护动机，这三种行为分别为：i）安全的食品购物行为；ii）手部卫生及避免交叉污染；iii）使用在线食品配送服务。运用描述性统计、斯皮尔曼等级相关分析和二元逻辑回归对数据进行了分析。共收到1180份回复，其中1129份有效。在新冠疫情期间，性别被确定为所有食品安全行为的显著预测因素。反应效能感和自我效能感是食品购物行为的显著预测因素，而感知严重性显著预测了购物后的手部卫生行为。年龄、食品制备和购物频率、感知严重性、感知易感性、反应效能感和自我效能感是使用在线食品配送服务的显著预测因素。我们的研究结果表明，在新冠疫情期间，女性更有可能在食品购物时采取保护措施、购物后进行手部卫生行为并使用在线食品配送服务。反应效能感和自我效能感得分较高的参与者更有可能在卫生标准高的市场或商店购物，而将新冠疫情视为严重威胁的参与者更有可能在购物后清洁和消毒双手。参与者还认为，使用在线食品配送服务有助于降低感染新冠病毒的风险。然而，食品应从信誉良好的餐馆或外卖店购买。这是第一项运用保护动机理论来探究新冠疫情期间消费者食品购物、手部卫生和在线食品配送行为的研究。
