Browsing by Author "Kruma, Z."
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- Analysis of factors that influence eating habits in different countriesPublication . Kalnina, I.; Straumite, E.; Klava, D.; Kruma, Z.; Bartkiene, E.; Isoldi, K.K.; Correia, Paula; Ferreira, Manuela; Guiné, Raquel P. F.Individual eating habits are influenced by a number of factors, including both internal variables such as physiology and emotion, as well as environmental factors such as food availability and cultural norms. Given the public health impact of dietary habits (choice, quality, amount, frequency) on health outcomes, it is important to understand what factors influence eating habits on a societal level. The aim of this research was to determine factors that influence eating habits and compare these factors between four different countries – Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and the USA. An eating motivation questionnaire was used to measure eating habits in 3,348 respondents from different regions and countries. There were ten parts - demographical information, anthropometric data and behavioral and health related elements, sources of information about healthy eating, factors related to food choices according to motivations (health, emotional, economic, availability, social, cultural, environmental, political, marketing and commercials). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and self-reported motivation was compared across countries. Health was the primary motivator of food selection in this sample (71% of respondents), whereas 34% reported that emotional factors impact their dietary habits and 35% reported that economic factors determine their food selection. A large number of respondents (44%) disagreed or strongly disagree or disagreed with the idea that marketing impacts their dietary habits. Portugal had the highest number of participants (86%), reporting that they agreed or strongly agreed with having health-related motivations for food selection, with Latvia (65%) and Lithuania (76%) showing more moderate levels of endorsement of healthy eating motivations, and the USA having the fewest respondents (52%) endorsing health-related motivations. Respondents from Portugal were more likely than respondents from the other countries to deny having emotional, economic and marketing motivations in food selection. From results can conclude that consumers are motivated by healthiness factors when making food choices (71% of respondents), but marketing, economic and emotional factors positively impact only 30% of consumers, other respondents completely disagreed or was indifferent to these types of motivations. Baltic countries (Latvia and Lithuania) were similar to each other, but Portugal and USA were completely different. Portugal strongly agreed with healthy motivations and disagreed with all other motivations, whereas USA and also Baltic countries had more equal division of opinions regarding impact of different motivations.
- Consumer perception about edible insects’ relation with environment and sustainabilityPublication . Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Klava, D.; Straumite, E.; Kruma, Z.; Florença, S. G.; Anjos, O.; Djekic, I.; Chuck-Hernandez, C.; Matek Saric, M.; Bartkiene, E.; Boustani, N. M.; Papageorgiou, M.; Baro, J. M. F.; Korzeniowska, M.; Cernelic-Bizjak, M.; Tarcea, M.; Damarli, E.; Ferreira, V.The interest in adopting more sustainable diets can be a driver for consumers to engage the consumption of edible insects, even in countries where they are not culturally accepted as food. This work aimed to study the perceptions and knowledge of consumers in different countries towards edible insects and their relation with environment and sustainability. The present investigation was based on a questionnaire survey (11 questions) and this descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on a non-probabilistic sample of 7221 participants from 14 countries. The participants in the survey revealed high knowledge (over 50%) about the sustainability issues related with edible insects as food. The sociodemographic variables education, sex and age are influential, by decreasing order of importance. Regarding living environment, rural areas have the lowest percentage of informed participants. Comparing countries, statistically significant differences were observed for all questions, making this the most important predictor for information about sustainability of edible insects. This is expected, having in mind that cultural influences are highly variable among the set of countries included in the study, with a high number of European countries, but also with Latin American countries like Mexico or Brazil, or Middle East countries like Turkey or Lebanon.
- Information, Perceptions and Motivations for Healthy Eating on a Group of European CountriesPublication . Guiné, Raquel; Correia, Paula; Ferreira, Manuela; Duarte, João; Cardoso, Ana Paula; Bartkiene, E.; Lele, v.; Starkute, v.; Juodeikiene, G.; Adomaitiene, V.; Steibliene, V.; Zadeike, D.; Szűcs, V.; Hámori, J.; Bizjak, M. C.; Stubelj, M.; Klava, D.; Straumite, E.; Kruma, Z.; Tarcea, M.; Fazakas, Z.; Buicu, F.; Ruta, F.; Rus, V.This is an original research work that is a part of the EATMOT project, which aims to study the eating motivations of different nature in a set of countries all over the world. In this work will be presented some results of the project, regarding three major areas: perceptions about healthy eating, sources of information about healthy diet and healthy motivations for food choice. This is a longitudinal observational study carried out on a non- probabilistic sample with 4870 participants residing in 6 European countries: Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia. Analysis of the data was performed using descriptive statistics and t-test for independent samples or ANOVA with Post-Hoc Tukey HSD, depending on the case. The results obtained allowed concluding that most of the participants have some knowledge about what a healthy diet entails, but still one third did not manifest an opinion for the questions related to healthy eating. Regarding the sources of information about healthy eating, internet was the source more frequently used by a significant part of the participants, while hospitals and health centres were quite irrelevant. This raises some concerns because the internet mighht not always be a reliable source of information. Finally, it was found that the health factors were more influential for the food choices in older people, females, widowed, retired and people working or studying in the area of nutrition.
- Latvian citizens knowledge about dietary fiberPublication . Klava, D.; Straumite, E.; Kruma, Z.; Guiné, RaquelThe positive benefits of DF associated with the regulation of the intestinal transit, and the prevention or treatment of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and regulate colon cancer and obesity. The aim of this research was to collect information on knowledge about dietary fibre on citizens’ of Latvia. The questionnaire consists 22 questions, which aim was to evaluate knowledge on three distinct areas: six for knowledge about food fibres; six for the relation between fibres and variety of foods and 12 for the relations between fibres and diseases. The methodological study was conducted with 231 participants, from which 64.9% were female and 35.1% male, aged between 17 and 80 years. The respondents were selected by convenience, although of age, literacy, gender, geographical area of residence, including people from different cities and smaller villages. 67% of respondents consider that the consumption of sufficient amounts of fibres can prevent or treat different diseases. 85% of respondents have noted that legumes (peas, beans) are source of fibres, but more possible take up the fibre with a combination of vegetables and animal products. This research was prepared in the ambit of the multinational project from CI&DETS Research Centre (IPV e Viseu, Portugal) with reference PROJ/CI&DETS/2014/0001.
- Latvian consumers eating motivationsPublication . Kalnina, I.; Straumite, E.; Klava, D.; Kruma, Z.; Guiné, RaquelThe society’s dietary habits make an important impact on overall health status, the food that are consumed daily can be one of factors that prevent or, on the contrary, intensify health issues. The aim of this research was to find out the factors that influence food choice of Latvian citizens. In the survey there was studied Latvian citizen’s eating motivation. The questionnaire was used as a basic tool which was completed by 240 respondents (80% female and 20% male) from different Latvia regions. The survey included ten parts – demographical information, anthropometric data and behavioural and health related elements, healthy food and sources of information about healthy eating, factors related to food choices according to healthy motivations, emotional motivations, economic and availability motivations, social and cultural motivations, environmental and political motivations, marketing and commercials motivations. The results of questionnaire show, that the 40% of respondents have motivation to eat healthy; Latvian citizens haven’t united viewpoint regarding emotional motivations for eating, but 47% of respondents have economic motivations for different food purchases; 44% of respondents are motivated by social and cultural issues, 32% of respondents have political motivations in food choice, but only 31% of respondents are affected by different marketing actions. This research was prepared in the ambit of the multinational project from CI&DETS Research Centre (IPV e Viseu, Portugal) with reference PROJ/CI&DETS/2016/0008: EATMOT.