Introduction

Objectives

Participants

Materials & Methods

Discussion

References

Self Reported Health Consciousness Levels: Organic versus Non-Organic Shoppers

Ashley Dissmore, Erik Gregersen, Anna Newberry, & Ryan SonnenburgLuther College, Psychology of Health and Illness –Advisor Dr. Loren Toussaint

Health Consciousness is the degree to which someone attends to or focuses on his or her health; it is a lifestyle choice (Lajos, 2005). A high level of health consciousness is a good predictor of how willing an individual is to participate in preventative cares towards his or her health. An important part in preventative cares is food choice. A common misconception is that organic foods are “more nutritious” than non-organic foods. Organic food is nothing more than food produced without pesticides, herbicides, inorganic fertilizers, antibiotics, and growth hormones. Most research concludes that there is no evidence that organic food is healthier or more nutritious than conventional food (Honkanen, 2006).

We hypothesized that if the misconception that organic food is “more nutritious” existed, then people would be more likely to have higher health consciousness levels if they shop at an organic store compared to a general grocery store.

Hypothesis

The Purpose of this study was to see if there was a significant difference between the self-reported health consciousness levels of organic food versus non-organic shoppers. We also looked for any effects that could be due to different demographics such as socio-economic status, age, and martial status.

•Surveys were collected from 52 participants•27 surveys were collected from Fareway•22 surveys were collected from the Co-op

Results•Data was collected on a Saturday morning from 10am to 12pm at both stores.•Participants were asked to take a 2-5minute long survey consisting of 17 questions.•5 questions were not on a continuum, which asked about age, marital status, gender, household income, and if they had children.•Participants were asked to place an “X” on the continuum for the Health Conscious Scale listed below.

•The health conscious scale produced no statistically significant results with the F =0.094, p = 0.760.•When asked “how frequently do you shop here” we found that the results were statistically significant with F = 5.013, p = 0.030. •“What percent of groceries do you get from this store” yielded a significant difference and an F = 11.095, p = 0.002.•Age was statistically significant between Fareway and the Co-op with the ANOVA results with the F=4.730 and the p=0.035•Using logistics regression tests, age was not a factor in explaining causation of the differences due to marital or kids.

Honkanen, P., et al. (2006). Ethical Values and Motives Driving Organic Food Choice. Journal of Consumer Behavior, (5), 420-430.

Lajos, Attila. Szira, Zoltan.(2005). Health Consciousness In the Lifestyle and Scale of Values of the Hungarian Young People. Stowarzyszenie Ekonomistrow Rolnictwaigrobiznesu Roczniki Naukowe, 7(6). 77-82.

After running our statistical analysis, we found that higher levels of health consciousness was not present at the Co-op over Fareway. This could have been due to the location within the store where data was collected. There was a main effect between frequency of shopping at the stores. This could be due to the restaurant setting of the Co-op were participants were there to eat lunch rather than purchase groceries. The effects of consuming organic foods has been proven as being minimal for improving the well-being of the consumer. Organic foods are beneficial to the environment, but not the consumer. The awareness of this statistic may have been greater than we initially predicted because no statistical significance was found with the self reported health consciousness levels. A future study that would be a good further investigation would be to look for the unaccounted for variable that caused the significance between age differences of the shoppers.

•I reflect about my health a lot•I’m very self-conscious about my health•I’m generally attentive to my inner feeling about my health•I’m constantly examining my health•I’m usually aware of my health•I’m aware of the state of my health as I go through the day•I’m alert to changes in my health•I notice how I feel physically as I go through the day•I’m very involved with my health•Never l-----l-----l-----l-----l-----l-----l-----l-----l Always