Nutrition Information Needs and Sources

To provide successful programming, Extension educators must develop useful messages and choose the appropriate channels for reaching a target audience. Georgia Extension nutrition and health specialists surveyed adults to determine the types of nutrition information they're interested in and identify the sources used to obtain this information. Questions on nutrition information needs and information sources were included in a telephone poll conducted by the University of Georgia's Survey Research Center. A random digit dialing procedure was used to select the sample for the telephone interviews. In addition, the respondent from each household contacted was randomly selected to stratify the sample on the basis of sex and age. A total of 527 interviews were completed.

Results indicate that nutrition information needs were significantly associated with age (p<.001), marital status (p<.05), and gender (p<.05). Older people differed from younger adults by wanting more information about diet and disease. Unmarried (single and divorced) respondents differed from married respondents by needing more information dealing with appearance and children's nutrition. Males differed from females by indicating a lack of need for nutrition information.

Sources used to obtain nutrition information were significantly associated with age (p<.005), gender (p<.001), and income (p<.05). Medically related sources were cited more frequently by older respondents than younger respondents and by lower-income respondents than higher-income respondents. Friends were cited more frequently as sources of nutrition information by males than females. Media was most often cited as a source for nutrition information in all categories.

Sources of specific types of food and nutrition information were significantly associated with education and income. Those with less than a 12th grade education were less likely than those with more education to use media sources for most types of nutrition information and were more likely to use friends as sources of food preservation information. Extension home economists were cited as a source for food and nutrition information by low percentages of respondents in both education and income categories, except for the topic of food preservation information.

Those earning less than $25,000 per year were more likely than those with higher incomes to perceive commercial sources, such as health food stores or health clubs as sources for information on healthy eating, lifestyle habits, and infant feeding. Those with lower incomes were less likely to cite nutrition-related sources for information on weight loss.

Findings suggest a need for developing nutrition messages that increase awareness of the diet-health connection among younger adults. In addition, Extension nutrition educators may need to develop programs using media sources and physicians as channels for nutrition information to improve outreach capabilities.