Tuesday, 09 Jul 2019
A survey on healthy eating attitudes conducted by students from the School of Communication at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) showed that 56% of the respondents did not know that they should be consuming at least two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables every day as part of a balanced diet. In addition, 45% were unaware that butter, cream and egg yolks contained saturated fat.
To understand Hong Kong people's food beliefs, the channels they use to obtain their healthy eating information, and whether they will follow the dietary advice put forward by the Department of Health, 91 students from the Integrated Communication Management programme in the HKBU School of Communication conducted a survey in April 2019. Using quota sampling, Hong Kong residents aged between 40 and 69 were invited to fill in an online questionnaire. Altogether 788 questionnaires were successfully collected.
Making reference to the healthy eating advice available on the Department of Health website, the questionnaire included a set of questions to measure the food knowledge of the respondents. The results showed that 54% of the respondents did not know that grains, such as rice and wheat, should be a major dietary source according to the "healthy eating food pyramid" guide. In addition, 57% did not know that using saturated fats, such as lard, for cooking are not recommended by the Department of Health. (The results are summarised in Table 1.)
However, 82% knew that "low fat, low sodium or salt, low sugar and high fibre" is one of the key principles of healthy eating and a balanced diet. Meanwhile, the majority of respondents were generally supportive of dietary advice, including "low oil and low sugar" and "more vegetables and less meat". They were also willing to observe the "healthy eating food pyramid" recommended by the Department of Health.
In the survey, respondents were also asked to give their degree of agreement to some diet and health-related statements. Some of these statements involve relatively disputable dietary beliefs, such as "it is healthy to avoid carbohydrates", "only drinking vegetable juice for one to several days can remove toxins from the body", "it is not healthy to eat gluten" and "red meat (e.g. pork, beef, and mutton) is not healthy".
The results indicated that 52% of respondents were not in favour of avoiding carbohydrates, while 53% did not agree with detoxing by drinking only vegetable juice. In addition, 43% and 55% of respondents did not consider gluten and red meat to be unhealthy. (The results are summarised in Table 2.)
The survey also tried to establish how participants learnt about healthy eating information. The results showed that most respondents receive information mainly from their families, followed by friends, television, print media and their electronic platforms, as well as from health professionals such as doctors or nurses. In terms of reliability, respondents trusted the information provided by health professionals the most, followed by government resources such as the Department of Health website, and traditional media. (The results are summarised in Table 3.)
The linear regression results indicated that the likelihood of respondents following the dietary advice of the Department of Health was related to their marital status, preferred information source, and their knowledge of healthy eating. The married respondents demonstrated a stronger intention to follow the dietary advice of the Department of Health. Those who regularly used authoritative and traditional media sources to obtain dietary information, and those with a higher knowledge of healthy eating, also demonstrated a stronger intention to follow the dietary advice of the Department of Health.
Since television is the main way that respondents receive healthy eating information (The mean value is 3.2. The results are summarised in Table 3), the HKBU research team recommended that Government departments, such as the Department of Health, should consider producing more TV announcements or videos to advocate healthy eating education.
As for those who are single and less likely to get dietary information from official or traditional media, the HKBU research team suggested that more focus could be put on their families and friends. This included adopting more peer group interactions and encouraging participants to spread the message to their relatives and friends when organising healthy eating education activities or campaigns.
If you have questions about this survey, you may contact Dr Lennon Tsang, Lecturer of the School of Communication, HKBU at 3411 3152/ 9042 6733, or lennon@hkbu.edu.hk.
Table 1: The number of people who answered the question correctly
| Question (Correct answer) | Number | Percentage |
| 1. Which type of food should we eat according to principles of healthy eating and balanced diet? (low fat, low sodium or salt, low sugar and high fibre) | 648 | 82 |
| 2. Which of the following is saturated fat? (Butter, cream and egg yolk) | 431 | 55 |
| 3. According to the Healthy Eating Pyramid, which type of food should we eat the most every day? (Grains) | 363 | 46 |
| 4. How much fruit and vegetable does the Department of Health recommend to take every day?（Two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables） | 344 | 44 |
| 5. Which of the following is not the healthy cooking method recommended by the Department of Health?（Use saturated fat for cooking, such as lard） | 341 | 43 |
| 6. Which of the following statement is correct? (Modern method for freezing meat can maintain the nutritional value of meat.) | 265 | 34 |
| 7. How much meat, fish, eggs and substitutes dose the Department of Health recommend to take every day?（500 to 800 grams） | 99 | 13 |
Table 2: Attitudes toward health beliefs and dietary advice (N=788)
| Statement | Agree(%) | Neutral(%) | Disagree(%) |
| Disputable beliefs | |||
| 1. It is healthy to eat different kinds of foods and not picky eating | 83 | 8 | 9 |
| 2. Knowing how to interpret nutrition labels helps me pick healthy foods | 54 | 29 | 16 |
| 3. Choosing what I like is healthier than choosing food with health marks | 38 | 27 | 34 |
| 4. It is healthier to cook with foods with nutrition labels rather than counting calorie | 45 | 38 | 17 |
| 5. Chinese traditional diet is healthy | 64 | 29 | 7 |
| 6. It is healthy to avoid manufactured food | 77 | 16 | 7 |
| 7. It is healthy to avoid carbohydrates | 23 | 25 | 52 |
| 8. It is easy to obtain proteins from animal products | 36 | 34 | 30 |
| 9. Root vegetables, such as potato, are healthy | 73 | 20 | 7 |
| 10. Accumulated toxins from food are the main cause of cancer | 39 | 33 | 28 |
| 11. The body needs cleansing to remove the toxins we get from our food | 63 | 25 | 12 |
| 12. Only drink vegetable juice in one to several days can remove toxins from the body | 24 | 23 | 53 |
| 13. It is not healthy to eat gluten | 16 | 41 | 43 |
| 14. Vegetarian (excludes fish and eggs) is healthy | 31 | 29 | 41 |
| 15. Red meat (e. pork, beef, and mutton) is not healthy | 21 | 24 | 55 |
| Attitudes toward dietary advice from the Department of Health | |||
| 1. I will follow the advice of the Department of Health on more vegetables and less meat diets | 66 | 23 | 12 |
| 2. I will follow the dietary advice of the Department of Health on low-oil and low-sugar diets | 62 | 25 | 13 |
| 3. I will follow the dietary advice of the Department of Health on the food pyramid | 47 | 35 | 18 |
Table 3 Frequency of information source use and information credibility (mean)
| Information Source* | Information Credibility# | |
| New media: | ||
| Print media e version | 2.9 | 3.5 |
| Search engine | 2.7 | 3.1 |
| Social Media | 2.8 | 3.0 |
| Blog | 1.9 | 2.7 |
| Instant message app | 2.7 | 3.0 |
| Other apps | 2.3 | 2.9 |
| Video website | 2.5 | 3.0 |
| Health website | 2.6 | 3.7 |
| Authoritative media: | ||
| Doctor or nurse | 2.9 | 4.1 |
| Nutritionist | 2.4 | 3.9 |
| TCM doctor | 2.7 | 4.0 |
| Health publicity materials | 2.6 | 3.9 |
| Government website | 2.3 | 3.8 |
| Traditional media: | ||
| Print media | 2.9 | 3.7 |
| TV | 3.2 | 3.7 |
| Radio | 2.6 | 3.5 |
| Interpersonal media: | ||
| Family | 3.3 | 3.6 |
| Friends | 3.2 | 3.5 |
Measured on five-point scale
* 1=Never 5=Always
#1=Incredible 5=Credible