The Korean Journal of Nutrition  2012;45(2):170-180

doi:10.4163/kjn.2012.45.2.170

Health/functional food consumption factors of 20's Korea women based on social cognitive theory.

Jung Eun LEE 1 ; Yoon Jung YANG ; SunHee SEO ; Oran KWON

Affiliations

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Keywords

health/functional food; women in their 20's; social cognitive theory; consumption patterns; environmental factors

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

This study was conducted to identify factors influencing Health/Functional Foods (HFFs) consumption for women in their 20's based on social cognitive theory. A total of 295 subjects participated in this study and were divided into two groups based on the experience of HFF use. This study compared their personal, environmental and behavioral factors which influence the consumption of HFFs. With regard to personal factors, the expected effectiveness for HFFs was higher in the user group than the nonuser group. For the environmental factors, the subjects' use of HFFs was critically affected by the use of HFFs regarding the family members. In terms of behavioral factors, there were no significant differences between the two groups. For the user group, it was observed that their use of HFFs was closely related to when their interests for health was high and the family's use of HFF was high. On the other hands, for the nonuser group, there were less people around them using HFFs than the user group and they did not feel that HFFs were necessary. Since non-experts including parents and close acquaintances critically affected the HFF ingestion of the subjects, it is essential to educate all citizens as well as HFFs consumers about HFFs information.