Research -supported guidelines and message design in the case of food safety
Abstract
Foodborne illness is a significant and growing threat to U.S. public health caused by consuming food containing microbial pathogens. Foodborne illness may cause death, permanent disability, or temporary symptoms. Since consumers are the final critical point in the food storage and preparation process, their behavior is vital in reducing the incidence of foodborne illness. Much is known about perceptions that affect the likelihood that people will change their attitudes and behaviors about safe food handling. However, relatively little is known about the extent to which statements addressing these perceptions are reflected in the content of promotional materials designed to encourage food safety. The core question of this research project concerned the extent to which there was a match between research-supported guidelines and the content of food-safety promotional materials. To answer this question, this project proposed a model of five factors most likely to affect attitudinal and behavioral change based on an extensive body of research examining preventive health behaviors. In turn, these factors provide research-supported guidelines for message design. Next, the investigator developed a coding scheme classifying statements according to the research supported guidelines. Nationally distributed messages intended for adults regarding food-safety compliance in the home were analyzed. The results showed that food-safety promotional materials often lack message features that reflect the five factors most likely to affect attitudinal and behavioral change. Less than one-fourth of message content was dedicated to providing efficacious understandings of the physical world, to communicating foodborne illness risks, to bolstering consumers' belief in their ability to adopt recommended behaviors, or to negating costs or advocating benefits of adoption. The findings of this project suggest that food-safety communicators, in general, are not developing messages that capitalize upon the existing research directing message design.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Sherry, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Mass media|Public health|Rhetoric|Composition|Health education
Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server.