A Pilot Investigation to Healthy Menu Selection Attitudes and Behaviors among Restaurant Consumers

Abstract

This study was to assess the perception of healthy food and to explore the behavioral intention to consume healthy food at restaurants using the theory of planned behavior. A survey was used for data collection. An information table was set up at the entrance to the cafe. Interested customers voluntarily visited the table to receive a brief introduction to the study and paper surveys. One group participants received menus with nutrition information, while the other group received the cafe’s regular menu, which includes no nutrition information. The first part of the survey instrument consisted of items assessing participants’ knowledge about healthy food (Know), the perception of the importance of respondents’ knowledge (ImKnow), attitude (ATT), subjective norm (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), and intention (INT) toward healthy food consumption. The second section included measurement items designed to assess salient beliefs and referents regarding healthy food consumption. The last section consisted of questions related to participants’ social demographic information. Descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and multi-group structural equation modeling were used in the study. Most participants’ ATT (β=0.442; p<0.001), PBC (β=0.386; p<0.001), and SN (β=0.267; p<0.001) were significantly related to behavioral intention, while PBC (β=0.225; p=0.019) was not significantly related to INT for participants in the regular menu group. The results highlight that providing nutrition information and more healthy food options are essential in order to improve restaurant consumers’ diets in the U.S.