1. Snack and Beverage Recognition and Consumption Behaviour Among Children in Two Primary Schools
Nongnuch Jaichuen, Payao Phonsuk, Sirinya Phulkerd and Thaksaphon Thamarangsi
International Health Policy Program, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand
Background
Snacks, fast food and sugar-sweetened drinks are the most advertised on television in Thailand, for example in 2009, McDonald’s spending on fast food TV advertisement was 95% of total advertising expenditure. In addition, these are the top ten most commonly consumed light meals among Thai children. There are no prior studies examining relationships between recognition of the advertised food and drink and eating behaviour among Thai primary school children. There is strong evidence that advertisement, particularly on TV, influences the food and drink preferences of children ages 2–11 years.
Objectives
To assess the relationship between individuals’ abilities to recognize brand logos featured in TV promotional campaigns by the food and beverage industry and their dietary behaviour.
This project is supported By
Representative in Thailand
Methods
Sample: All grade 6 children aged 11–14 years was purposively selected from two public primary schools in Bangkok and in Phetchaburi province
Tool: A well pretested self-administered questionnaire was used to assess socio-demographic characteristics of children and parents, children ability in recognizing these food logo advertised in TV and their eating behaviours. Total 14 snack and drink and 5 non-food logos commonly advertised in TV were printed in the questionnaire for their recognition.
Findings
The total 453 got parental consent to participate in this study. They demonstrated high logo recognition ability when 95.6% of all samples correctly recognized at least 12 out of the 14 food and drink brand logos. These children had high frequency of snack, fast foods and soft drinks consumptions. For example, children who ate snacks at least once a day or fast foods more than once a day were associated with high logo recognition. It is noted with concern that only 76% of sample children were having breakfast everyday in a week. However, there are no clear association between ability of accurate recognition of snack logo and parental education, maternal occupation and BMI.
total
Percentage of children correctly identifying 14 brand logos
P-value
High
Intermediate
Low
Overall
453
63.1
32.7
4.2
Students’ demographic characteristics
Body mass index (BMI)
low
146
67.8
30.1
2.1
0.042*
moderate
112
60.7
37.5
1.8
high
191
65.4
28.3
6.3
Parents’ socio-demographic characteristics
Father’s educational level
Primary school 27
48.1
33.3
18.5
0.020*
High school 85
57.6
37.6
4.7
Bachelor’s degree
130
68.5
29.2
2.3
Higher than bachelor’s degree 88
70.5
26.1
3.4
unknown
116
66.4
29.3
4.3
Mother’s educational level 32
59.4
18.8
21.9
0.000* 74
55.4
43.2
1.4
154
70.7
25.5
3.8
60.8
36.5
2.7
109
67.9
28.4
3.7
Mother’s occupation
official 99
71.7
20.2
8.1
0.012*
employee 44
77.3
22.7
0.0
merchant
64.3
33.8
1.9
other
125
58.4
35.2
6.4
Eating behaviours
Breakfast
Everyday
344
65.7
30.8
3.5
0.011*
3-4 days per week 64
60.9
32.8
1-2 days per week 25
80.0
8.0
12.0
Never or hardly ever 19
36.8
57.9
5.3
Snacks
Once a day
442
66.3
30.5
3.2
At least once a week 11
45.5
54.5
Fast food
More than once a day 29
58.6
37.9
0.001*
38.6
15.9
128
68.0
27.3
Rarely
208
69.2
Never
53.1
40.6
Scores of children correctly identifying brand logos
Soft drinks
Fast
Food
Others
Snack
Sweet
Bakery
Definition of low, moderate, and high BMI (kg/m2) for age/gender
Age
Boys
Girls
11 years old
Low ( )
moderate ( )
high (>19.50)
Low ( )
moderate ( )
high (>20.00)
12 years old
Low ( )
Low ( )
moderate ( )
high (>21.00)
13 years old
Low ( )
moderate ( )
high (>20.50)
Low ( )
moderate ( )
high (>22.00)
14 years old
Low ( )
None
Source:
Discussion and Conclusion
Although children’s higher recognition of food and drink logos may reflect greater exposure to food and drink TV advertisements, brand recognition does not clearly appear to be a major influence on the consumption of these products.
Socio-demographic characteristics of parents, especially mothers, play a role in children’s recognition of food logos.
Regulatory restriction of TV snack food advertising to children alone might not be sufficient in containing such consumption among children unless combined with measures to address other detrimental influences such as parental education level.
Contact Information:
International Health Policy Program, Ministry of Public Health.
Tiwanon Road, Muang, Nonthaburi Thailand 11000
Tel: +66 (0) Fax:+66 (0)
The 5 th National Health Research Forum
29-30 September 2011, Vientiane, Lao PDR