consumption of organic and functional food. a matter of well-being.pdf

Research report

Consumption of organic and functional food A matter of well-beingand healthBeate Goetzke Sina Nitzko Achim SpillerDepartment of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development ndash Marketing of Food and Agricultural Products Georg-August University of Goettingen Platzder Goumlttinger Sieben 5 37073 Goettingen Germany

A R T I C L E I N F O

Article historyReceived 19 October 2012Received in revised form 6 February 2014Accepted 21 February 2014Available online 13 March 2014

KeywordsOrganic foodFunctional foodConsumptionWell-beingHealthSocial desirability

A B S T R A C T

Health is an important motivation for the consumption of both organic and functional foods The aim ofthis study was to clarify to what extent the consumption of organic and functional foods are character-ized by a healthier lifestyle and a higher level of well-being Moreover the influence of social desirabil-ity on the respondentsrsquo response behavior was of interest and was also analyzed Well-being and healthwas measured in a sample of 555 German consumers at two levels the cognitive-emotional and the be-havioral level The results show that although health is an important aspect for both functional food andorganic food consumption these two forms of consumption were influenced by different understand-ings of health organic food consumption is influenced by an overall holistic healthy lifestyle including ahealthy diet and sport while functional food consumption is characterized by small ldquoadjustmentsrdquo to life-style to enhance health and to increase psychological well-being An overlap between the consumptionof organic and functional food was also observed This study provides information which enables a bettercharacterization of the consumption of functional food and organic food in terms of well-being and health

copy 2014 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

Introduction

Health is becoming an increasingly important personal and so-cietal value Due to the costs that are associated with curative med-icine the prevention of health problems occurring in the first placeis very important A substantial proportion of health complaints arecategorized as civilization-related diseases and could be pre-vented by a healthier lifestyle Besides physical activity adequatenutrition is an essential aspect in influencing a personrsquos health status(Altgeld et al 2006) Consumers have started to understand thattheir food choices may have consequences for their health and arepaying more attention to the health benefits of food to maintain ahealthy lifestyle (Bachl 2007 Chrysochou 2010 Pech-Lopatta 2007)

Functional food addresses this issue by offering food that can pos-itively affect peoplersquos health Various scientific publications haveshown that health is an important motivation for functional foodconsumption (see Bech-Larsen amp Grunert 2003 Chen 2011a Diplocket al 1999 Niva amp Maumlkelauml 2007 Szakaacutely Szente Koumlveacuter Polereczkiamp Szigeti 2012) Typical functional food products are those en-riched with substances such as probiotics prebiotics or omega-3 fattyacids In the present study we have adhered to the broadly ac-cepted definition of functional food by Diplock et al (1999) whichstates that

a food can be regarded as lsquofunctionalrsquo if it is satisfactorily dem-onstrated to affect beneficially one or more target functions inthe body beyond adequate nutritional effects in a way that isrelevant to [ ] an improved state of health and well-being

Poulsen (1999) has presented an even broader definition of func-tional food specifying four categories of its production (a) upgrad-ing ie enhancement by adding a substance which is already presentin the product (b) substitution ie substituting a component witha similar but healthier substance (c) enrichment ie adding a sub-stance not present in the basic product and (d) elimination ie re-moving an unhealthy component In accordance with Diplock et al(1999) tablet-like foods do not comply with the definition of func-tional food in this paper and functional foods need to be food likeyoghurt or margarine with an additional health benefit

Another kind of food that is usually perceived as being healthyand fulfills the criterion as being ldquobetter for merdquo (Pech-Lopatta 2007)is organic food Various studies show the importance of environ-mental factors or concerns about animal welfare as motives for theconsumption of organic food (Davies Titterington amp Cochrane 1995Harper amp Makatouni 2002 Hughner McDonagh Prothero Shultzamp Stanton 2007 Lea amp Worsley 2005 Torjusen Lieblein Wandelamp Francis 2001) However Magnusson Arvola Hursti Aberg andSjoden (2003) come to the conclusion that egoistic motives likehealth concerns are more important for the consumption of organicfood than the mentioned altruistic motives Various empirical studieshave underlined the significance of health as a motivating factor forthe consumption of organic food in general (Baker Thompson

Corresponding authorE-mail address bgoetzkeuni-goettingende (B Goetzke)

httpdxdoiorg101016jappet2014020120195-6663copy 2014 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

Appetite 77C (2014) 94ndash103

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Appetite

journal homepage wwwelseviercom locate appet

Engelken amp Huntley 2004 Chen 2009 De Magistris amp Gracia 2008Gracia amp de Magistris 2008 Haghiri Hobbs amp McNamara 2009Hughner et al 2007 Lea amp Worsley 2005 Mondelaers Verbekeamp van Huylenbroeck 2009 Padel amp Foster 2005 Schifferstein amp OudeOphuis 1998) Nevertheless there is a lack of studies that focus indetail on different health-related aspects and health behaviors aspredictors for the consumption of organic food

The theoretical and empirical evidence presented above sup-ports the rationale that for both functional and organic food typeshealth is a crucial consumption motive This study develops a moremultidimensional and differentiated view of factors associated withthe consumption of functional food and organic food Behavioral andcognitive-emotional aspects of well-being and health are taken intoconsideration that may be connected to increasing levels of organicor functional food consumption This paper therefore represents anovel departure from other contemporary organic and functionalfood studies as we have analyzed both forms of consumption usingthe same variables Accordingly it is possible to compare the as-sociations with the different health-related variables of organic andfunctional food For this purpose 685 German consumers were in-terviewed regarding their consumption of these types of food theirlevel of well-being and their health behavior (providing 555 validresponses)

Methodology

Procedure and sample

The study was carried out in two stages First a pretest with 40randomly selected consumers recruited from an online access panelwas conducted to improve the quality of the statements which hadbeen translated from English into German The pretest showed thatsome of the statements were not fully understood and needed tobe adjusted In addition by means of a confirmatory factor analy-sis the entire item set was reduced and the most highly loaded itemswere identified The pretest also proved the assumption of socialdesirability of some well-being statements

Social desirability describes the tendency of a person to deny traitsthat are socially undesirable and to claim social desirable traits Italso includes the bias to say things that sheds a good light on theperson making the statement (Atteslander amp Kneubuumlhler 1975) Alarge number of empirical studies indicate an association betweenreports of well-being and social desirability (Brajša-Žganec Ivanovicamp Lipovcan 2011 Fastame amp Penna 2013 Kozmna amp Stones 1987Lawal 2008) Because of our suspicion that the answers of someitems of the Perceived Wellness Survey (PWS) could be influencedby social desirability we decided to include questions to measurethe presence of social desirability

In the second stage a total of 685 German consumers were sur-veyed The participants were recruited and randomly selected byan online access panel provider To ensure a nationally represen-tative sample we used gender age and income quotas reflectingthe composition of the German population The sample included349 female (51) and 336 male (49) participants 71 were over40 years old and 29 under 40 years old They ranged in age from14 to 85 years with a mean age of 4876 (standard deviation 1563)Table 1 describes the characteristics of the participants by genderage and monthly household net income in comparison to the entireGerman population

Measures

According to the World Health Organization health is more thanthe absence of illness and disability it is a state of well-being (WorldHealth Organization 1986) Health is characterized by multidimen-sionality and its construct includes physical social emotional

mental spiritual and behavioral aspects from the subjective viewof an individual (Schumacher Klaiberg amp Braumlhler 2003) In orderto reduce the complexity of this construct well-being was recog-nized at two levels in this study In line with the definition of Schum-acher et al (2003) we have distinguished between a behavioral leveland a cognitive-emotional level The latter includes all aspects (socialpsychological physical spiritual emotional and intellectual) thatare not directly related to behavior

The cognitive-emotional level of well-being and health

To assess the cognitive-emotional level of well-being and healththe Perceived Wellness Survey from Adams Bezner and Steinhardt(1997) was used This survey includes the same basic dimensionsof wellness as other wellness measures (eg Ardell 1977 Hettler1980 Travis amp Ryan 2004) It was developed on scientific founda-tions such as the ldquoMedical Outcomes Survey-36rdquo from Ware andSherbourne (1992) and the ldquoExistential Well-Being Scalerdquo fromPaloutzian and Ellison (1982) and has been empirically validated(Adams Bezner Garner amp Woodruff 1998 Harari Waehler amp Rogers2005) The Perceived Wellness Survey measures perceptual ratherthan clinical physiological or behavioral variables (Adams et al1998) The questionnaire is divided into six separate subscales phys-ical spiritual psychological social emotional and intellectual well-ness Each subscale includes six items measuring self-reportedwellness Higher scores indicate a higher perceived well-being

The ldquophysical wellnessrdquo dimension primarily aims to positivelyassess physical health and its perception The key aspect of ldquospiri-tual wellnessrdquo is a positive perception of the meaning of onersquos lifeand purposeful living ldquoPsychological wellnessrdquo represents opti-mism and positive life expectations in an individualrsquos life while theldquoemotional wellnessrdquo dimension addresses self-esteem ldquoSocial well-nessrdquo is characterized by being supported by family or friendswhereas the ldquointellectual wellnessrdquo dimension assesses the amountof mental and intellectual activity

As reviews of the literature have shown that ldquooccupational well-nessrdquo is an important aspect for wellness (Miller amp Foster 2010Roscoe 2009) we added occupational wellness items from the Life-style Assessment Questionnaire from Hettler (1980) In general oc-cupational wellness is defined as ldquothe level of satisfaction andenrichment gained by onersquos work and the extent to which onersquos oc-cupation allows for the expression of onersquos valuesrdquo (Roscoe 2009p 221) Each item was rated on a six-point Likert-type rating scaleranging from ldquovery strongly disagreerdquo to ldquovery strongly agreerdquo

Table 1Sample description

Characteristics Overall sample(n = 685)

Populationa

n Percent Percent

GenderMale 336 49 49Female 349 51 51

AgeUnder 20 years 54 8 421ndash40 years 147 21 2941ndash60 years 259 38 3561 years and over 225 33 32

Monthly household net incomeLess than euro900 54 8 13euro901ndasheuro1500 136 21 24euro1501ndasheuro2600 225 36 32More than euro2601 219 34 31No answer 51

a Source German Federal Office for Statistics (Statistisches Bundesamt [GermanFederal Office of Statistics 2011)

95B Goetzke et alAppetite 77C (2014) 94ndash103

Behavioral level of well-being and health

This level of well-being and health is understandable as healthbehavior Gochman (1997) defines it as those ldquobehavior patternsactions and habits that relate to health maintenance to health res-toration and health improvementrdquo (p 3) The usage of medical ser-vices the compliance with medical regimes as well as self-directedhealth behaviors are all included in this definition Besides the directeffects of health behaviors (eg healthy or unhealthy diet) medi-ating effects on health have to be taken into consideration as health-related behaviors can reduce strengthen or modify the effects ofstress and emotions on the processes of health and disease (Baumamp Posluszny 1999) Our study concentrated on the self-directedhealth behaviors specified by the definition of Gochman (1997)

In contrast to the cognitive-emotional level of well-being andhealth there is no model that clearly defines the behaviors belong-ing to the behavioral level of well-being and health Furthermoreno standardized item battery could be identified from theliterature that was suitable for our research questions As a conse-quence we combined different item batteries to measure the self-directed health behaviors We focused on beauty activities (Goetzkeamp Spiller 2014) relaxation activities (Goetzke amp Spiller 2014) socialcommunity wellness (Hettler 1998) health care behavior (Hettler1998) risk behavior (adapted from Hettler 1998) stress control(Anspaugh Hamrick amp Rosate 2009) drugtobacco and caffeine use(Hettler 1998) and sport activity These items were designed spe-cifically for this study Furthermore we included eating behaviorbecause of the validated associations between health-related nu-tritional orientation and the consumption of functional food (Niva2007) and organic food (Lockie Lyons Lawrence amp Mummery 2002Schifferstein amp Oude Ophuis 1998) We also selected items from thescales ldquoConsumption of healthy low-fat foodrdquo and ldquoAppreciation ofhealthy nutritionrdquo that belong to a statement battery by Diehl (2002)

All the items were displayed with a six-point Likert scalecontaining the options ldquovery strongly disagreerdquo to ldquovery stronglyagreerdquo or ldquo(almost) neverrdquo to ldquo(almost) alwaysrdquo depending on thestatement

As there was no model that clearly defined the facets of the be-havioral level of well-being and health we used an explorative ap-proach The statistical method of factor analysis was then appliedto test the affiliation of the created factors to the behavioral level

Food consumption

Two different question types were used to measure the respon-dentsrsquo functional and organic food consumption We asked themabout their general food consumption within the last six monthsand also about their consumption of certain organic food groups orcertain functional food groups The latter foods were categorizedaccording to Diplock et al (1999) and Poulsen (1999) ie function-al food in a broad sense Accordingly we asked the respondents abouttheir consumption frequency of functional food categories (eg well-ness flakesmuesli probiotic milk products) rather than about prod-ucts of a special brand or producer Before the presentation of theitems concerning the frequency of consumption of functional foodsrespondents were informed by an introduction text about the natureof functional foods We informed them that the following state-ments refer to food that promises to bring an additional healthbenefit eg by additional vitamins Furthermore we gave some ex-amples of the health effects of functional foods (eg strengtheningof heart and blood vessels combating free radicals supporting di-gestion improving intestinal health reducing cholesterol level) Wealso added the information that the word ldquofunctional foodrdquo (or itsGerman translation) is common for these kinds of foods as manyconsumers do not know this term We also presented some pic-tures of known functional foods for illustration

Concerning general consumption of organic food and function-al food the question was ldquoHow often have you eaten organic foodfoods with additional health benefits during the last 6 monthsrdquowith answering options on a six-point Likert scale as follows oncea week or more twice a month once a month once every 2ndash3months once every 4ndash6 months rarely neverI donrsquot eat it

For organic food consumption we included questions on eightproduct groups The respondents answered the questions on a six-point Likert scale from 1 = ldquoneverI donrsquot eat thisrdquo to 6 = ldquoalwaysrdquoLikewise the functional food consumption was divided into 12categories

Social desirability

There are various methods of controlling the level of social de-sirability in surveys Because of our suspicion that the answeringof some items of the Perceived Wellness Survey could be influ-enced by social desirability we decided to include a questionnaireto measure the extent of social desirability Therefore the Bal-anced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) short scale (WinklerKroh amp Spiess 2006) was applied which is based on the BalancedInventory of Desirable Responding from Paulhus (1991) The formerwas developed to measure social desirability in a short form as otherscales are much longer The BIDR short scale (see Appendix) can beused to identify either critical items or critical respondents and in-cludes three items measuring self-deceptive enhancement as wellas three items for impression management According to Paulhus(1991) self-deceptive enhancement serves to protect a personrsquos self-image and self-esteem It refers to a distorted optimistic percep-tion of reality and thus an unconscious deceit Impressionmanagement in contrast is a conscious and deliberate deceptionto present the best possible image of oneself to another person Therespondents could choose options on a seven-point Likert scaleranging from ldquoI totally agreerdquo to ldquoI totally disagreerdquo

In addition to the items measuring the extent of social desir-ability we added a text before the questions in which the effect ofsocial desirability was described to the participants requesting themto consider this effect carefully when answering the questions Thisconcept is known in the literature as ldquocheap talkrdquo and has beenwidely and successfully used in the context of willingness to paystudies (eg Cummings amp Taylor 1999 Murphy Stevens ampWeatherhead 2004) The ldquocheap talkrdquo treatment contained the fol-lowing text in our study

Before you answer the following questions I would like to drawyour attention to a problem that we have in studies like thisSometimes people tend to embellish or even conceal facts insurveys Maybe you have heard of this before This is called ldquosocialdesirabilityrdquo It is the behavior of respondents to adapt theiranswers to the expectations of the study or the presumed ex-pectations of the researcher in order to be favorable One exampleis the understatement of alcohol consumption Please bear thisin mind on the following pages There is no right or wrong answeryour realistic assessment is important

Analysis factor and OLS regression analysis

The analysis was completed in three sequential steps Firstly anexploratory factor analysis was performed on the data to detect latentstructures behind the series of behavioral and cognitive-emotionalvariables and to reduce the variables into manageable sets Factorloadings were calculated with a Varimax rotation process Items withfactor loadings lower than 05 were removed as well as items withsubstantial double loading on two or more factors The factor anal-ysis was assessed using the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlettrsquos testsThe factor loadings were then used to interpret the factors Finally

96 B Goetzke et alAppetite 77C (2014) 94ndash103

the Cronbachrsquos alpha (CRA) values were reviewed for internal con-sistency of the factors In the second step an exploratory factor anal-ysis was conducted to identify appropriate item groups forming thetwo food variables

Thirdly to study and quantify dependencies between the scalesa multivariate ordinary least squares regression analysis was con-ducted to test the estimated effects of behavioral and cognitive-emotional wellness on functional or organic food consumption Themodel was specified so that each food type Yorganic and Yfunctional isa linear combination of the independent factors xj The revised cri-teria of the regression function were the coefficient of determina-tion R2 the adjusted R2 and the F-statistics To test the regressioncoefficients the t-value and the standardized and unstandardizedregression coefficients β were checked The standardized coeffi-cients were used to describe the results of each model whereasthe unstandardized regression coefficients were considered tocompare both models in the sample (West Aiken Wu amp Taylor2007) The analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20for Windows

Results

Preliminary analysis social desirability

The BIDR short scale (Winkler et al 2006) was used in the pretestto check whether our impression of social desirability in the Per-ceived Wellness Survey was applicable The first study with 40 par-ticipants showed a significant correlation between self-deceptiveenhancement in 15 out of 36 items (42) mainly with emotionalintellectual psychological physical and spiritual wellness catego-ries whereas impression management only correlated signifi-cantly with 5 out of 36 items (14) (Table 2) Thus 17 of 36 (47)items of the Perceived Wellness Survey showed a significant cor-relation to either impression management or self-deceptive en-hancement or to both

The responses from the full test (n = 685) were therefore exam-ined for self-deceptive enhancement and impression managementprior to analysis To prevent respondents with high self-deceptiveenhancement tendencies from skewing the results all those casesin which the sum of the characteristics of the three self-deceptiveenhancement statements lay between 19 and 21 were removed fromthe data set Thereby most of the participants with impression man-agement behavior were also eliminated as impression manage-

ment and self-deceptive enhancement correlate The remainingsubjects were nevertheless tested for impression management andthe respondents for which the sum of the three items was 21 wereremoved Using these criteria 130 cases were removed from the dataset leaving a total of 555 respondents for the subsequent analysis

Principal component factor analysis scale development

A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to build scales mea-suring organic and functional food consumption (Table 3) The organicfood scale shows high reliability (Cronbachrsquos alpha 094) in all eightitems The most highly loaded items are the consumption of organicvegetables fruit and general organic food

The functional food consumption factor contains 12 items andhas a reliability of 088 (Cronbachrsquos alpha) The most highly loadeditems are general functional food consumption probiotic milk prod-ucts and ACE (vitamin enriched) drinks All products included inthe scale meet the requirements of functional food that are definedby Diplock et al (1999) and Poulsen (1999) Both factors showed acorrelation of 0440 at the 001 level There is therefore an inter-section between functional and organic food consumption meaningthat they are not independent of each other

Subsequently an exploratory principal component analysis wascalculated for all the tested wellness items to build higher-order con-structs (Table 4) The variables converge in six factors measuring thecognitive-emotional level (CEL) of well-being and eight factors mea-suring the behavioral level of well-being and health (BL) which canbe described as one-dimensional scales Only one factor (Alterna-tive medication and spirituality) is a mixed factor of cognitive-emotional level and behavioral level items The total explainedvariance of this factor analysis was 6941 with a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value of 077 The Cronbachrsquos alpha values were within theacceptable range and indicate the internal reliability of the factorsOnly ldquophysical activityrdquo ldquosocial wellness (family)rdquo ldquoalternative med-ication and spiritualityrdquo ldquohealth care and preventionrdquo ldquorisk behav-iorrdquo and ldquotobacco and caffeine reductionrdquo were found to haveintermediate values However a Cronbachrsquos alpha value below thecut-off value of 07 is considered to be acceptable in the case of anew scale (Flynn Schroeder amp Sakakibara 1994) or a scale with ameaningful content (Schmitt 1996) Furthermore lower Cronbachrsquosalpha values are justified when there are a small number of itemsper factor such as in the case of ldquotobacco and caffeine reductionrdquoand ldquorisk behaviorrdquo in this survey

Table 2Perceived Wellness Survey items correlating significantly with impression management (IM) or self-deceptive enhancement (SDE) (Sample 1 n = 40)

Items IM SDE PWS dimension

Correlation between IM and SDE 048

There have been times when I felt inferior to most of the people I knewa minus035 minus011 EmotionalIn general I feel confident about my abilities 030 053 EmotionalI sometimes think I am a worthless individuala 037 045 EmotionalI am uncertain about my ability to do things well in the futurea minus026 minus039 EmotionalI will always be secure with who I am 015 049 EmotionalI will always seek out activities that challenge me to think and reason 031 034 IntellectualGenerally I feel pleased with the amount of intellectual stimulation I receive in my daily life 023 033 IntellectualThe amount of information that I process in a typical day is just about right for me 014 035 IntellectualI am always optimistic about my future 033 036 PsychologicalI always look on the bright side of things 016 048 PsychologicalIn the past I have expected the best 013 032 PsychologicalI expect to always be physically healthy 034 020 PhysicalCompared to people I know my past physical health has been excellent 0043 033 PhysicalMy body seems to resist physical illness very well 019 038 PhysicalIt seems that my life has always had purpose 025 005 SpiritualI feel a sense of mission about my future 017 047 SpiritualI believe that there is a real purpose for my life 026 047 Spiritual

Only items with a significant correlation at P le 000 P le 001 or P le 005 are displayeda Reverse-keyed items


OLS regression analysis factors affecting food choice

A regression analysis with the ordinary least squared (OLS)method was conducted to examine the roles of both cognitive-emotional and behavioral items in the consumption of organic andfunctional foods as shown in Table 5 The ldquoPsychological-emotionalwellnessrdquo and the ldquorisk behaviorrdquo factor needed to be eliminatedfrom the model as they were insufficiently linearly correlated to thedependent variable which would otherwise violate the OLS modelassumptions Overall the model explains 307 of the variance inorganic food consumption The results indicate that the use of al-ternative medication and spirituality social community involve-ment physical activity and healthy eating behavior are all positivecontributors to the consumption of organic food In generalcognitive-emotional well-being does not correlate with organic foodconsumption whereas health behavior does have a significantinfluence

In order to examine the effects on functional food the same modelwas calculated but with functional food as the dependent vari-able (Table 5) The two factors ldquophysical wellnessrdquo (CEL) and ldquophys-ical activityrdquo (BL) needed to be excluded from the model as thelinearity with the dependent variable could not be shown Overallthe model explains 335 of the variance of the functional foodconsumption

ldquoSpa relaxation and wellnessrdquo ldquosocial wellness (friends)rdquo ldquosocialcommunity involvementrdquo ldquobeauty and wellnessrdquo and ldquotobacco andcaffeine reductionrdquo all had a positive influence on functional foodconsumption However ldquopsychological-emotional wellnessrdquo showeda significant negative effect In contrast to organic food the cognitive-emotional level of well-being and health did affect functional foodconsumption in the respondents tested

Discussion and conclusions

This study is one of the first attempts to examine organic andfunctional food consumption using the same model These twogroups have previously always been analyzed independently despitethe fact that they are both responses to the same trend in increas-

ing consumer awareness about the health issues surrounding foodThe studyrsquos findings contribute to the understanding of consumerbehavior especially concerning the consumption of organic and func-tional food Overall they highlight the importance of a healthy life-style and increased well-being for the consumption of organic orfunctional foods

Before generalizing the results of this empirical study some limi-tations need to be considered The first aspect is the problem of usingan absolutely accurate translation of the components of the Per-ceived Wellness Model (Adams et al 1997) which is the theoret-ical basis of the study Despite careful translation and testing it ispossible that the German translation did not fully reflect the orig-inal components Furthermore in line with Adams et al (1997) theparticipants were asked to respond to the statements using a six-point Likert scale However several studies have shown that a five-point or seven-point scale with a midpoint is preferable (Garland1991 Komorita amp Graham 1965 Weijters Cabooter amp Schillewaert2010) In this context the question of the optimal number of scalepoints for the Perceived Wellness Survey needs to be discussedfurther

In addition to the thematic focus the present study also dealswith the bias of social desirability Until now the influence of socialdesirability has been considered only in clinical studies in the contextof mental health and psychopathology but not in wellness re-search papers (eg Ardell 1977 Hettler 1980 Travis amp Ryan 2004)For example adolescents who suffer from a chronic mental healthdisease have been shown to report a lower degree of psychopatho-logical symptoms than healthy peers due to the phenomenon ofsocial desirability (Boeger Seiffge-Krenke amp Roth 1996) Follow-ing the results of our analysis on the influence of social desirabil-ity we recommend that a scale such as the Balanced Inventory ofDesirable Responding Short Scale (Winkler et al 2006) used hereshould be developed for surveys on very personal issues or healthissues to assess social desirability This scale has the advantage ofbeing very short compared with other scales and can be easily in-tegrated into questionnaires Nevertheless it should be testedwhether the scale is reliable and valid in other countries andcross-culturally

Table 3Food consumption items and scale reliability

Scale Items Mean Standarddeviation

Factorloadingc

Organic food consumptionReliability Cronbachrsquos alpha 094

1 Organic vegetablessaladsb 275 156 0892 Organic fruitb 283 156 0893 General organic food consumptiona 281 136 0884 Organic milk and dairy products 256 155 0875 Organic bread and bakery goodsb 234 141 0856 Organic meat and sausage productsb 232 141 0847 Organic cereal (eg muesli)b 225 143 0798 Organic eggsb 296 176 078

Functional food consumptionReliability Cronbachrsquos alpha 088

1 General functional food consumptiona 250 129 0802 Probiotic milk productsb 238 152 0773 ACE drinksb (drinks enriched with vitamins A C and E) 224 133 0764 Wellness waterb 202 137 0755 Wellness flakesmueslib 204 137 0756 Oral care chewing gumb 257 165 0747 Bread with vitaminssupplementsb 206 131 0658 Energy drinksb 177 126 0649 Low-fat productsb 292 151 0610 Low-sugar productsb 282 151 05711 Table salt enriched with fluoride andor folic acidb 358 187 05212 Cholesterol-lowering oil or spreadb 226 154 035

a How often have you eaten organic foodfoods with additional health benefits during the last 6 months Scale 6-point Likert scale once a week and more frequently(6)twice a month (5)once a month (4)once every 2ndash3 months (3)once every 4ndash6 months (2)rarely never I donrsquot eat it (1)

b How often do you generally eat the following organic productsfoods with additional health benefits Scale 6-point Likert scale always (6)almost always (5)often(4)rarely (3)seldom (2)never ndash I donrsquot eat them (1)

c Rotated factor loadings (Varimax)


The results of this study conducted in Germany show that organicfood consumption is not influenced by cognitive-emotional well-being apart from the mixed behavioralcognitive-emotional levelof well-being and health factor ldquoalternative medication and spiri-tualityrdquo In other words alternative medication and spirituality in-crease onersquos probability of eating organic food We assume that apreference for alternative medicine is associated with a more natural

way of life So far there has been a lack of studies that focus on as-sociations between traditional medicine and nutritional aspectsHowever Astin (1998) in addition to a variety of other authors hasshown a connection between alternative medicine and a holistic viewof health

Our study has contributed to the area of well-being and healthresearch by providing results concerning food preferences Regard-

Table 4Cognitive-emotional and behavioral items and scale reliability

ScaleReliability(Cronbachrsquos alpha)

Items Mean Standarddeviation

Factorloadinga

Psychological-emotional wellness(CEL)

073

1 I feel more than ever overworked and have an overwhelming amount of workb 394 151 0772 I sometimes think I am a worthless individualb 422 160 0733 I often feel stressed in everyday lifeb 352 149 0694 I avoid activities which require me to concentrateb 459 131 0605 Life does not hold much future promise for meb 390 164 047

Occupational wellness(CEL)

093

1 I am satisfied with the amount of variety in my workc 425 142 0902 I enjoy my workc 435 137 0893 I find satisfaction in the work I doc 414 142 089

Physical wellness (CEL)077

1 My physical health is excellentb 378 138 0842 I expect to always be physically healthyb 424 134 0683 My physical health has restricted me in the pastb 348 169 056

Spiritual-emotionalwellness (CEL)

077

1 It seems that my life has always had purposeb 410 139 0812 I believe that there is a real purpose for my lifeb 420 138 0813 I always look on the bright side of thingsb 418 120 050

Social wellness (family)(CEL)

062

1 My family has been available to support me in the pastb 463 139 0802 Sometimes I wonder if my family will really be there for me when I am in needb 430 165 0743 Members of my family come to me for supportb 442 133 061

Social wellness(friends) (CEL)

071

1 My friends know they can always confide in me and ask me for adviceb 500 100 0842 My friends will be there for me when I need helpb 446 123 081

Alternative medicationand spirituality(BLCEL)

062

1 Before I take prescribed medication I first try to cure myself only with traditional home remedies oralternative medicines (eg homoeopathy and Bach flower remedies)b

389 160 068

2 Esoteric approaches (eg meditation astrology tarot pendulums aroma or color therapy) play animportant role in my lifeb

435 137 066

3 It is my aim to bring body and spirit into harmonyb 423 139 0594 I am religiousb 272 172 042

Beauty and wellness(BL)

083

1 My appearance is very important to meb 429 124 0842 I do something for my appearanceb 412 131 0803 I pamper my body with body care products or massagesb 320 164 0644 I pamper myself now and then at homeb 342 167 054

Social communityinvolvement (BL)

079

1 I participate in volunteer activities benefiting othersc 243 152 0872 I contribute time or money to community projectsc 265 149 0803 I actively seek to become acquainted with individuals in my communityc 295 141 070

Healthy diet (BL)074

1 I eat healthily and always have a balanced dietb 378 126 0742 I am careful to eat as little fat as possibleb 384 146 0733 I eat what tastes good and I do not care particularly about whether it is healthyb 309 144 0694 I eat lots of fruits and vegetablesb 448 123 067

Spa relaxation andwellness (BL)

074

1 Wellness means displaying luxury to the outside worldb 269 158 0772 I regularly go to the cosmetician or to a beauty salonb 182 135 0763 For relaxation I do yoga tai chi or qi gongb 201 139 056

Physical activity (BL)063

1 Do you exercise regularlyd 335 155 0872 How many hours per week do you exercise (for example cycling or walking at medium to high speed)e 466 278 081

Health care andprevention (BL)

062

1 When I experience illness I take necessary steps to correct the problemb 370 143 0722 I practice active health care to improve my prowessb 339 144 0613 I have my breasts or testes examined yearly by a physicianb 394 171 0544 I participate in activities that provide relief from stressb 267 143 041

Risk behavior (BL)062

1 I travel carefully on the roadb 469 109 0792 In my hobbies (sports crafts etc) I behave cautiouslyb 407 130 077

Tobacco and caffeinereduction (BL)

052

1 I avoid the use of tobaccob 430 207 0812 I limit my consumption of caffeineb 370 171 077

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin 077 Explained variance 6941CEL cognitive-emotional level of well-being and health BL behavioral level of well-being and health

a Rotated factor loadings (Varimax)b 6-point Likert scale ldquovery strongly disagreerdquo (1) to ldquovery strongly agreerdquo (6)c 6-point Likert scale ldquoalmost neverrdquo (1) to ldquoalmost alwaysrdquo (6)d 6-point Likert scale ldquoNo and I do not want tordquo (1) to ldquoYes more than 4 times a weekrdquo (6)e 8-point Likert scale ldquo0 hoursrdquo (1) to ldquomore than 5 hoursrdquo (8) Item recoded into opposite due to negative factor loading


ing health behavior two areas were identified that influence the con-sumption of organic products a healthy diet as well as physicalactivity and participating in sport both of which have also been con-firmed by other studies (eg Chen 2009 Hoffmann amp Spiller 2010)Moreover it can be said that commitment in society favors the con-sumption of organic products Healthy eating physical activity andnatural medicine dominate health behavior Therefore it can be saidthat an active healthy lifestyle can be characterized by the activi-ties in which people are engaged

Cognitive-emotional well-being plays a more important role forthe consumption of functional food than for organic food Reducedpsychological-emotional well-being increases the likelihood of eatingfunctional food Various empirical studies indicate the tendencyto eat as a mechanism to regulate negative emotional states (MachtHaupt amp Ellgring 2005 Macht amp Simons 2000) Until now thereare no studies concerning associations between eating as a strate-gy to regulate emotions and the consumption of functional foodBut we can assume that persons who suffer from negativepsychological-emotional well-being tend to use eating as one strat-egy to reduce negative feelings Dean et al (2012) showed that therelevance of health problems to oneself has strong influence onwillingness to buy functional food and on perceptions of benefitsof these products Therefore persons who suffer from negative emo-tional feelings could tend to buy foods that promise well-being andhappiness However our results showed that functional food con-sumption is clearly linked to positive social well-being in the contextof friends In general the social contexts in which functionalfood consumption takes place are rarely studied Results of focusgroups show that consumers of functional food report experi-ences of disease among family and friends leading to increasedawareness of risk factors for diseases (eg cholesterol in the devel-opment of heart diseases) (Niva 2007) In the light of this resultone can assume that consumers of functional food are highly in-volved in close social relationships and attribute a high impor-tance to them because health-related experiences in theserelationships seem to be significantly associated with the own foodconsumption They could prefer functional food to prevent healthproblems and diseases experienced especially by friends It can besupposed that the role of friends especially in the life of singles isan important source of emotional and social support and in some

cases can substitute the traditional family social relationship (Bellotti2008)

The results of a study by Urala and Laumlhteenmaumlki (2003) provideanother approach to explain the association between functional foodconsumption and social well-being The consumption of function-al food is associated with an ethical reward and it is characterizedby a high degree of social acceptability In the view of functionalfood consumers this consumption pattern seems to be associatedwith favorable impression in social contexts (Urala amp Laumlhteenmaumlki2004) One can assume that consumers of functional food are eagerto make a good impression in social contexts in general They investa lot in the cultivation of satisfactory social relations especially withfriends which in turn results in high social well-being Further re-search concerning the importance of social relations in the con-sumption of functional food is necessary

Concerning health behavior social commitment plays a lesserrole in functional food consumption than it does in organic food con-sumption ldquoSocial community involvementrdquo is the only predictor thatis common in both consumption models The reason behind the im-portance people place upon functional and organic food consump-tion can perhaps be explained in that they do not only think aboutthemselves but are also generally concerned about others The factorof ldquosocial community involvementrdquo contains two statements in thecontext of the idea of charity ldquoI participate in volunteer activitiesbenefiting othersrdquo and ldquoI contribute time or money to communityprojectsrdquo The third statement used in this factor on the other handrepresents more the socializing aspect as ldquoI actively seek to becomeacquainted with individuals in my communityrdquo The consumptionof functional and organic food is associated with social dedica-tion However it can be assumed that there is a difference in howthese two kinds of consumption can be characterized by their socialcommitment-related behaviors As environmental concerns and en-vironmental protection are important motives for organic pur-chases (Squires Juric amp Cornwell 2001) it can be presumed thatcharity aspects and altruism are also more marked in the consump-tion of this type of food (Hoffmann amp Spiller 2010 Shaw-HughnerMcDonagh Prothero Shultz amp Stanton 2007) In contrast a char-acteristic ldquoof wanting to get to know peoplerdquo might be more dom-inant for functional food consumption as indicated by the correlationanalysis of the data set in this study

Table 5Factors affecting organic and functional food consumption

Organic food consumptiona Functional food consumptionb

Variables Unstandardizedcoefficients

Standardizedcoefficients β

t P-value Unstandardizedcoefficients


t P-value

Constant 004c c 068c 050c 000 minus004 097Psychological-emotional wellness (CEL) minus019 minus019 minus410 000Spiritual-emotional wellness (CEL) minus006 minus005 minus084 040 002 002 039 069Occupational wellness (CEL) 003 003 049 062 minus001c minus001c minus019c 085c

Physical wellness (CEL) 006 005 092 036Social wellness (family) (CEL) 002 002 028 078 006 006 126 021Social wellness (friends) (CEL) 009 009 150 013 017 017 359 000Social community involvement (BL) 021 022 370 000 014 014 286 000Spa relaxation and wellness (BL) 011 011 174 008 023 022 426 000Beauty and wellness (BL) 009 009 132 019 014 014 268 001Alternative medication and spirituality (BLCEL) 029 029 466 000 001 001 017 087Health care and prevention (BL) minus008 minus007 minus118 024 009 009 177 008Healthy diet (BL) 013 012 205 004 007c 007c 139c 017c

Physical activity (BL) 012c 012c 217c 003c

Risk behavior (BL) minus003 minus003 minus074 046Tobacco and caffeine reduction (BL) 005 005 087 039 009 009 205 004

CEL cognitive-emotional level of well-being and health BL behavioral level of well-being and healtha R = 0583 R2 = 0340 Adjusted R2 = 0307 DurbinndashWatson 184 F = 1028b R = 0596 R2 = 0356 Adjusted R2 = 0335 DurbinndashWatson 192 F = 1689c This independent variable was eliminated from the model due to insufficient linear correlation to the dependent variable

P le 000 P le 001 P le 005


The usage of spas and beauty facilities relaxation massages toindulge and beauty treatments is positively associated with func-tional food consumption This also confirms the European under-standing of wellness as mentioned in the literature In Austria andGermany the term was first used by the tourism and leisure indus-tries in the late 1980s and early 1990s and is still widely used(Duumlrrschmid et al 2008 Nahrstedt 2008) Beauty in general as wellas the ambition to achieve a beautiful body has been linked to well-ness (Miller 2005) It has become a marketing term partially asso-ciated with esoteric elements such as yoga meditation or naturalcosmetics (Duumlrrschmid et al 2008) Europeans associate wellnesswith pleasure and feeling well to a much greater degree than NorthAmericans do (Miller 2005)

It can be assumed that the preference for passive ways to promotewell-being in the context of functional food is associated with morepassive ways in other areas of health-related behavior (Goetzke ampSpiller 2014) Nutrition should be healthy but without extensivepreparation and effort Until now no empirical results comparingthe different areas of health-related behavior have been pub-lished However our results have shown that functional food con-sumption was associated with a small but significant reduction inthe use of stimulants such as caffeine or tobacco The connectionindicates that leading a healthier lifestyle becomes visible in dif-ferent areas of life Different empirical studies show significant as-sociations between the consumption of tobacco and caffeine(Swanson Lee amp Hopp 1994) Therefore the reduced intake of oneof the substances for improving the lifestyle is accompanied by thereduction of the consumption of the other substance The WorldHealth Organization (2013) underlines the danger for health thatis associated with tobacco consumption in different campaigns Con-cerning caffeine associations with different illnesses are equivo-cal A moderate intake is not accompanied by adverse health effectsbut risk groups like reproductive-aged women or chronically illpersons should limit their caffeine intake (European Food Informa-tion Council 2013 Lamarine 1994 Nawrot et al 2003) In con-clusion the increased consumption of functional food as well asthe reduction of the intake of caffeine and tobacco is understand-able as indicators of an underlying motivation to lead a healthierlife These results suggest that the understanding of health isless holistic for functional food consumption compared with organicfood but is focused instead on certain unhealthy aspects of life

In addition traditional spa services are more important for func-tional food indicating a more passive health behavior than in theorganic food model According to our results to achieve well-being and health lifestyle is not fundamentally changed but onlysome aspects of it

Confirmation that health is a reason for buying organic and func-tional products can also be found at the health behavior and well-ness level Health is an important aspect of the respondentsrsquo livesbut the consumption of organic and functional food is driven by dif-ferent understandings of health Both are characterized by increas-ing health and well-being organic food by an overall holistic healthylifestyle that the pioneer of the wellness concept Dunn (1959) de-scribed as a healthy lifestyle through lifestyle changes functionalfood by making small ldquoadjustmentsrdquo to enhance health and to in-crease psychological well-being It can therefore be concluded thatorganic food consumption follows more the original North Amer-ican concept while functional food consumption follows the Eu-ropean approach which is heavily influenced by the spa andrelaxation concept

Furthermore the consumption of these food groups is not ex-clusive but correlated Thus one can assume that there is a groupat the intersection that consumes both organic and functional foodThis shows the importance of studying both consumption pat-terns as the two forms of consumption overlap Considering theintersection between organic and functional food consumption found

in this study future investigations should be undertakenfor example the proportions of the two groups among consumersas a whole could be quantified using a cluster or target groupanalysis In particular consumers of functional food have notbeen well studied A further detailed characterization of this targetgroup would be useful for example in terms of personality traitsor similar socio-demographic background (high education incomeage etc)

Due to the large number of potentially relevant items and ex-tracted well-being factors we have concentrated in this study onlyon the direct and linear effects of the well-being factors on theconsumption of organic food and functional food Beyond this in-teractions between functional and organic food as well as amongthe single components of well-being could be hypothesized forexample physical activity might have an indirect effect on con-sumption mediated by psychological emotional wellness The ex-istence of such indirect or moderator effects should be tested withthe help of structural equation models or path analyses in furtherstudies

References

Adams T Bezner J Garner L amp Woodruff S (1998) Construct validation of thePerceived Wellness Survey American Journal of Health Studies 14 212ndash222

Adams T Bezner J amp Steinhardt M (1997) The conceptualization and measurementof perceived wellness Integrating balance across and within dimensions AmericanJournal of Health Promotion 11 208ndash218

Altgeld T Geene R Glaeske G Kolip P Rosenbrock R amp Trojan A (2006)Praevention und Gesundheitsfoerderung Ein Programm fuumlr eine bessere Sozial- undGesundheitspolitik [Prevention and health promotion A program for improved healthand social policy] Bonn Bonner Universitaetsdruckerei

Anspaugh D Hamrick M amp Rosate F (2009) Wellness Concepts and applicationsNew York McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Ardell D B (1977) High-level wellness An alternative to doctors drugs and diseaseEmmaus PA Rodale Press

Astin J A (1998) Why patients use alternative medicine Results of a national studyJournal of American Medical Association 279 1548ndash1553

Atteslander P amp Kneubuumlhler H V (1975) Verzerrungen im interview (Bias in theinterview) Opladen Westdeutscher Verlag

Bachl T (2007) Wellness trend benefits markets In BVE (Ed) Consumersrsquo choice ldquo07(pp 9ndash12) Berlin BVE

Baker S Thompson K E Engelken J amp Huntley K (2004) Mapping the valuesdriving organic food choice Germany vs the UK European Journal of Marketing38 995ndash1012

Baum A amp Posluszny D M (1999) Health psychology Mapping biobehavioralcontributions to health and illness Annual Review of Psychology 50 137ndash163

Bech-Larsen T amp Grunert K G (2003) The perceived healthiness of functional foodsAppetite 40 9ndash14

Bellotti R (2008) What are friends for Elective communities of single people SocialNetworks 30 318ndash329

Boeger A Seiffge-Krenke I amp Roth M (1996) Psychopathology self-concept anddevelopmental delay in healthy and chronically ill adolescents Results of a4frac12-year longitudinal study Zeitschrift fuumlr Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie undPsychotherapie 24 231ndash239

Brajša-Žganec A Ivanovic D amp Lipovcan L K (2011) Personality traits and socialdesirability as predictors of subjective well-being Psychological Topics 20261ndash276

Chen M-F (2009) Attitude toward organic foods among Taiwanese as related tohealth consciousness environmental attitudes and the mediating effects of ahealthy lifestyle British Food Journal 111 165ndash178

Chen M-F (2011a) The joint moderating effect of health consciousness and healthylifestyle on consumersrsquo willingness to use functional foods in Taiwan Appetite57 253ndash262

Chrysochou P (2010) Food health branding The role of marketing mix elementsand public discourse Journal of Marketing Communications 16 69ndash85

Cummings R G amp Taylor L O (1999) Unbiased value estimates for environmentalgoods A cheap talk design for the contingent valuation method AmericanEconomic Review 89 649ndash665

Davies A Titterington A J amp Cochrane C (1995) Who buys organic food A profileof the purchasers of organic food in Northern Ireland British Food Journal 9717ndash23

De Magistris T amp Gracia A (2008) The decision to buy organic food products inSouthern Italy British Food Journal 110 929ndash947

Dean M Lampila P Shepherd R Arvola A Reis A S Vassallo M et al (2012)Perceived relevance and foods with health-related claims Food Quality andPreference 24 129ndash135

Diehl J M (2002) Skalen zur Erfassung von Ernaumlhrungs- undGesundheitseinstellungen [Scales for the assessment of nutritional and healthattitudes] University of Giessen Unpublished questionnaire


Diplock A T Aggett P J Ashwell M Bornet F Fern E B amp Roberfroid M B (1999)Scientific concepts of functional foods in Europe Consensus document The BritishJournal of Nutrition 81 1ndash27

Dunn H L (1959) High-level wellness for man and society American Journal of PublicHealth and the Nations Health 49 786ndash792

Duumlrrschmid K Mayr T Svacinka R Jaros D Rohm H Bongartz A et al (2008)Sensorische Untersuchung von Wellness-Getraumlnken [Sensory evaluation ofwellness drinks] ErnaumlhrungNutrition 32 10ndash109 lthttpwwwernaehrung-nutritionatcmsnutritionattachments356CH0163CMS1233825893038duerrschmid_e3_2008pdfgt Accessed 090913

European Food Information Council (2013) Frequently asked questions lthttpwwweuficorgpageenpageFAQfaqidmoderate-intake-caffeinegt Accessed090913

Fastame M C amp Penna M P (2013) Does social desirability confound the assessmentof self-reported measures of well-being and metacognitive efficiency in youngand older adults Clinical Gerontologist The Journal of Aging and Mental Health36 95ndash112

Flynn B B Schroeder R G amp Sakakibara S (1994) A framework for qualitymanagement research and an associated measurement instrument Journal ofOperations Management 11 339ndash366

Garland R (1991) The mid-point on a rating scale Is it desirable Marketing Bulletin2 66ndash70

Gochman D S (1997) Handbook of health behavior research New York PlenumGoetzke B amp Spiller A (2014) Health-improving lifestyles of organic and functional

food consumers British Food Journal 116 510ndash526Gracia A amp de Magistris T (2008) The demand for organic foods in the south of

Italy A discrete choice model Food Policy 33 386ndash396Haghiri M Hobbs J E amp McNamara M L (2009) Assessing consumer preferences

for organically grown fresh fruit and vegetables in Eastern New BrunswickInternational Food and Agribusiness Management Review 12 81ndash100

Harari M J Waehler C A amp Rogers J R (2005) An empirical investigation of atheoretically based measure of perceived wellness Journal of CounselingPsychology 52 93ndash103

Harper G C amp Makatouni A (2002) Consumer perception of organic food productionand farm animal welfare British Food Journal 104 287ndash299

Hettler B (1980) Wellness promotion on a university campus Family amp CommunityHealth 3 77ndash95

Hettler B (1998) Wellness assessment report lthttphettlercomhistoryyoubethtmgt Accessed 090913

Hoffmann I amp Spiller A (2010) Auswertung der Daten der Nationalen VerzehrsstudieII (NVS II) Eine integrierte verhaltens- und lebensstilbasierte Analyse des Bio-Konsums[Data analysis of the German National Nutrition Survey II (NVS II) An integrativeanalysis of behavioral and lifestyle-related factors of organic food consumption]Goumlttingen Department of Nutritional Behaviour Max-Rubner Institute Karlsruheand Marketing of Food and Agricultural Products Georg-August Universitylthttporgprintsorg18055gt Accessed 090913

Hughner R S McDonagh P Prothero A Shultz C J amp Stanton J (2007) Who areorganic food consumers A compilation and review of why people purchaseorganic food Journal of Consumer Behaviour 6 1ndash17

Komorita S S amp Graham W K (1965) Number of scale points and the reliabilityof scales Educational and Psychological Measurement 4 987ndash995

Kozmna A amp Stones M J (1987) Social desirability in measures of subjectivewell-being A systematic evaluation Journal of Gerontology 42 56ndash59

Lamarine R J (1994) Selected health and behavioral effects related to the use ofcaffeine Journal of Community Health 19 449ndash466

Lawal O (2008) Influence of independent self-construal on psychological wellbeingGender and social desirability as moderators Gender amp Behaviour 6 2045ndash2057

Lea E amp Worsley T (2005) Australiansrsquo organic food beliefs demographics andvalues British Food Journal 107 855ndash869

Lockie S Lyons K Lawrence G amp Mummery K (2002) Eating ldquogreenrdquo Motivationsbehind organic food consumption in Australia Sociologia Ruralis 42 23ndash40

Macht M Haupt C amp Ellgring H (2005) The perceived function of eating is changedduring examination stress A field study Eating Behaviors 6 109ndash112

Macht M amp Simons G (2000) Emotions and eating in everyday life Appetite 3565ndash71

Magnusson M K Arvola A Hursti U Aberg L amp Sjoden P (2003) Choice of organicfood is related to perceived consequences for human health and toenvironmentally friendly behavior Appetite 40 109ndash117

Miller G amp Foster L T (2010) Critical synthesis of wellness literature Universityof Victoria Faculty of Human and Social Development amp Department ofGeography lthttpwwwgeoguviccawellnessCritical_Synthesis20of20Wellness20Updatepdfgt Accessed 090913

Miller J (2005) Wellness The history and development of a concept with particularattention to its American roots Spektrum Freizeit 1 84ndash102 lthttpwwwfh-joanneumatglobalshow_documentaspid=aaaaaaaaaabdjusampdownload=1gt Accessed 090913

Mondelaers K Verbeke W amp van Huylenbroeck G (2009) Importance of healthand environment as quality traits in the buying decision of organic productsBritish Food Journal 111 1120ndash1139

Murphy J Stevens T amp Weatherhead D (2004) Is cheap talk effective at eliminatinghypothetical bias in a provision point mechanism lthttpfacultycbppuaaalaskaedujmurphypapersCheapTalkpdfgt Accessed 090913

Nahrstedt W (2008) Wellnessbildung Gesundheitssteigerung in der Wohlfuumlhlgesellschaft[Wellness education Health improvement in the feel-good society] Berlin ErichSchmidt Verlag

Nawrot P Jordan S Eastwood J Rotstein J Hugenholtz A amp Feeley M (2003)Effects of caffeine on human health Food Additives and Contaminants 20 1ndash30

Niva M (2007) ldquoAll foods affect healthrdquo Understandings of functional foods andhealthy eating among health-oriented Finns Appetite 48 384ndash393

Niva M amp Maumlkelauml J (2007) Finns and functional foods Socio-demographics healthefforts notions of technology and the acceptability of health-promoting foodsInternational Journal of Consumer Studies 31 34ndash45

Padel S amp Foster C (2005) Exploring the gap between attitudes and behaviourUnderstanding why consumers buy or do not buy organic food British FoodJournal 107 606ndash625

Paloutzian R F amp Ellison C W (1982) Loneliness spiritual well-being and the qualityof life In L A Peplau amp D Perlman (Eds) Loneliness A sourcebook of current theoryresearch and therapy (pp 224ndash237) New York Wiley

Paulhus D L (1991) Measurement and control of response bias In J P RobinsonP R Shaver amp L S Wrightman (Eds) Measures of personality and socialpsychological attitudes (pp 17ndash59) New York Academic Press

Pech-Lopatta D (2007) ldquoWellfoodrdquo Healthy pleasures In BVE (Ed) Consumersrsquo Choicersquo07 (pp 23ndash34) Berlin BVE

Poulsen J (1999) Danish consumersrsquo attitudes towards functional foods MAPPworking paper 62 Aarhus School of Business lthttppureaudkportalfiles32297714wp62pdfgt Accessed 090913

Roscoe L J (2009) Wellness A review of theory and measurement for counselorsJournal of Counseling amp Development 87 216ndash226

Schifferstein H N J amp Oude Ophuis P A M (1998) Health-related determinantsof organic consumption in the Netherlands Food Quality and Preference 9119ndash133

Schmitt N (1996) Uses and abuses of coefficient alpha Psychological Assessment 8350ndash353

Schumacher J Klaiberg A amp Braumlhler E (2003) Diagnostik von Lebensqualitaumltund Wohlbefinden-Eine Einfuumlhrung [Diagnosing quality of life and well-being ndash an introduction] In J Schumacher A Klaiberg amp E Braumlhler (Eds)Diagnostische Verfahren zu Lebensqualitaumlt und Wohlbefinden (pp 1ndash18) GoumlttingenHogrefe

Shaw-Hughner R McDonagh P Prothero A Shultz C J II amp Stanton J (2007)Who are organic food consumers A compilation and review of why peoplepurchase organic food Journal of Consumer Behaviour 6 94ndash110

Squires L Juric B amp Cornwell T B (2001) Level of market development and intensityof organic food consumption Cross-cultural study of Danish and New Zealandconsumers Journal of Consumer Marketing 18 392ndash409

Statistisches Bundesamt [German Federal Office of Statistics] (Ed) (2011) StatistischesJahrbuch 2011 [Statistical almanac 2011] Wiesbaden Statistisches BundesamtlthttpswwwdestatisdeDEPublikationenStatistischesJahrbuchStatistischesJahrbuch2011pdf__blob=publicationFilegt Accessed 090913

Swanson J A Lee J W amp Hopp J W (1994) Caffeine and nicotine A review of theirjoint use and possible interactive effects in tobacco withdrawal AddictiveBehaviors 19 229ndash256

Szakaacutely Z Szente V Koumlveacuter G Polereczki Z amp Szigeti O (2012) The influence oflifestyle on health behavior and preference for functional foods Appetite 58406ndash413

Torjusen H Lieblein G Wandel M amp Francis C A (2001) Food system orientationand quality perception among consumers and producers of organic food inHedmark County Norway Food Quality and Preference 12 207ndash216

Travis J W amp Ryan R S (2004) Wellness workbook How to achieve enduring healthand vitality Berkeley CA Celestial Arts

Urala N amp Laumlhteenmaumlki L (2003) Reasons behind consumersrsquo functional foodchoices Nutrition and Food Science 33 148ndash158

Urala N amp Laumlhteenmaumlki L (2004) Attitudes behind consumersrsquo willingness to usefunctional foods Food Quality and Preference 15 793ndash803

Ware J E amp Sherbourne C D (1992) The MOS 36-item short-form health survey(SF-36) Medical Care 30 473ndash483

Weijters B Cabooter E amp Schillewaert N (2010) The effect of rating scale formaton response styles The number of response categories and response categorylabels International Journal of Research in Marketing 27 236ndash247

West S G Aiken L S Wu W amp Taylor A B (2007) Multiple regression Applicationsof the basics and beyond in personality research In R W Robins R C Fraley ampR F Krueger (Eds) Handbook of research methods in personality psychology (pp573ndash601) New York Guilford Press

Winkler N Kroh M amp Spiess M (2006) Entwicklung einer deutschen Kurzskalazur zweidimensionalen Messung von sozialer Erwuumlnschtheit [Development ofa German short scale for two-dimensional measurement of social desirability]Discussion Paper 579 Berlin DIW lthttpwwwdiwdesixcmsdetailphpid=diw_02c232162degt Accessed 090913

World Health Organization (1986) Ottawa charter for health promotion 1986lthttpwwweurowhoint__dataassetspdf_file0004129532Ottawa_Charterpdfgt Accessed 090913

World Health Organization (2013) WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic 2013Enforcing bans on tobacco advertising promotion and sponsorship lthttpappswhointirisbitstream106658538019789241505871_engpdfgt Accessed090913


Appendix

BIDR short scale (translated from the German paper of Winkler et al 2006)

Item Dimension

I always know why I like things Self-deceptive enhancementI am often unconfident of my judgementa Self-deceptive enhancementMy first impression of people usually turns out

to be rightSelf-deceptive enhancement

There have been occasions when I have takenadvantage of someonea

Impression management

Irsquom always honest with others Impression managementI have received too much change from a

salesperson without telling him or heraImpression management

7-point Likert scale ldquovery strongly disagreerdquo (1) to ldquovery strongly agreerdquo (6)a Reversedndashkeyed items


Consumption of organic and functional food A matter of well-being and health

Introduction

Methodology


Measures



Food consumption

Social desirability


Results





References

Appendix

Engelken amp Huntley 2004 Chen 2009 De Magistris amp Gracia 2008Gracia amp de Magistris 2008 Haghiri Hobbs amp McNamara 2009Hughner et al 2007 Lea amp Worsley 2005 Mondelaers Verbekeamp van Huylenbroeck 2009 Padel amp Foster 2005 Schifferstein amp OudeOphuis 1998) Nevertheless there is a lack of studies that focus indetail on different health-related aspects and health behaviors aspredictors for the consumption of organic food

The theoretical and empirical evidence presented above sup-ports the rationale that for both functional and organic food typeshealth is a crucial consumption motive This study develops a moremultidimensional and differentiated view of factors associated withthe consumption of functional food and organic food Behavioral andcognitive-emotional aspects of well-being and health are taken intoconsideration that may be connected to increasing levels of organicor functional food consumption This paper therefore represents anovel departure from other contemporary organic and functionalfood studies as we have analyzed both forms of consumption usingthe same variables Accordingly it is possible to compare the as-sociations with the different health-related variables of organic andfunctional food For this purpose 685 German consumers were in-terviewed regarding their consumption of these types of food theirlevel of well-being and their health behavior (providing 555 validresponses)

Methodology


The study was carried out in two stages First a pretest with 40randomly selected consumers recruited from an online access panelwas conducted to improve the quality of the statements which hadbeen translated from English into German The pretest showed thatsome of the statements were not fully understood and needed tobe adjusted In addition by means of a confirmatory factor analy-sis the entire item set was reduced and the most highly loaded itemswere identified The pretest also proved the assumption of socialdesirability of some well-being statements

Social desirability describes the tendency of a person to deny traitsthat are socially undesirable and to claim social desirable traits Italso includes the bias to say things that sheds a good light on theperson making the statement (Atteslander amp Kneubuumlhler 1975) Alarge number of empirical studies indicate an association betweenreports of well-being and social desirability (Brajša-Žganec Ivanovicamp Lipovcan 2011 Fastame amp Penna 2013 Kozmna amp Stones 1987Lawal 2008) Because of our suspicion that the answers of someitems of the Perceived Wellness Survey (PWS) could be influencedby social desirability we decided to include questions to measurethe presence of social desirability

In the second stage a total of 685 German consumers were sur-veyed The participants were recruited and randomly selected byan online access panel provider To ensure a nationally represen-tative sample we used gender age and income quotas reflectingthe composition of the German population The sample included349 female (51) and 336 male (49) participants 71 were over40 years old and 29 under 40 years old They ranged in age from14 to 85 years with a mean age of 4876 (standard deviation 1563)Table 1 describes the characteristics of the participants by genderage and monthly household net income in comparison to the entireGerman population

Measures

According to the World Health Organization health is more thanthe absence of illness and disability it is a state of well-being (WorldHealth Organization 1986) Health is characterized by multidimen-sionality and its construct includes physical social emotional

mental spiritual and behavioral aspects from the subjective viewof an individual (Schumacher Klaiberg amp Braumlhler 2003) In orderto reduce the complexity of this construct well-being was recog-nized at two levels in this study In line with the definition of Schum-acher et al (2003) we have distinguished between a behavioral leveland a cognitive-emotional level The latter includes all aspects (socialpsychological physical spiritual emotional and intellectual) thatare not directly related to behavior


To assess the cognitive-emotional level of well-being and healththe Perceived Wellness Survey from Adams Bezner and Steinhardt(1997) was used This survey includes the same basic dimensionsof wellness as other wellness measures (eg Ardell 1977 Hettler1980 Travis amp Ryan 2004) It was developed on scientific founda-tions such as the ldquoMedical Outcomes Survey-36rdquo from Ware andSherbourne (1992) and the ldquoExistential Well-Being Scalerdquo fromPaloutzian and Ellison (1982) and has been empirically validated(Adams Bezner Garner amp Woodruff 1998 Harari Waehler amp Rogers2005) The Perceived Wellness Survey measures perceptual ratherthan clinical physiological or behavioral variables (Adams et al1998) The questionnaire is divided into six separate subscales phys-ical spiritual psychological social emotional and intellectual well-ness Each subscale includes six items measuring self-reportedwellness Higher scores indicate a higher perceived well-being

The ldquophysical wellnessrdquo dimension primarily aims to positivelyassess physical health and its perception The key aspect of ldquospiri-tual wellnessrdquo is a positive perception of the meaning of onersquos lifeand purposeful living ldquoPsychological wellnessrdquo represents opti-mism and positive life expectations in an individualrsquos life while theldquoemotional wellnessrdquo dimension addresses self-esteem ldquoSocial well-nessrdquo is characterized by being supported by family or friendswhereas the ldquointellectual wellnessrdquo dimension assesses the amountof mental and intellectual activity

As reviews of the literature have shown that ldquooccupational well-nessrdquo is an important aspect for wellness (Miller amp Foster 2010Roscoe 2009) we added occupational wellness items from the Life-style Assessment Questionnaire from Hettler (1980) In general oc-cupational wellness is defined as ldquothe level of satisfaction andenrichment gained by onersquos work and the extent to which onersquos oc-cupation allows for the expression of onersquos valuesrdquo (Roscoe 2009p 221) Each item was rated on a six-point Likert-type rating scaleranging from ldquovery strongly disagreerdquo to ldquovery strongly agreerdquo

Table 1Sample description

Characteristics Overall sample(n = 685)

Populationa

n Percent Percent

GenderMale 336 49 49Female 349 51 51

AgeUnder 20 years 54 8 421ndash40 years 147 21 2941ndash60 years 259 38 3561 years and over 225 33 32

Monthly household net incomeLess than euro900 54 8 13euro901ndasheuro1500 136 21 24euro1501ndasheuro2600 225 36 32More than euro2601 219 34 31No answer 51

a Source German Federal Office for Statistics (Statistisches Bundesamt [GermanFederal Office of Statistics 2011)







Food consumption




Social desirability









Results


























Factorloadingc















Factorloadinga


073



093





077



062



071



062


389 160 068


435 137 066



083



079





074





062





052
















t P-value






P le 000 P le 001 P le 005









References



















































































Appendix


Item Dimension










Introduction

Methodology


Measures



Food consumption

Social desirability


Results





References

Appendix






Food consumption




Social desirability









Results


























Factorloadingc















Factorloadinga


073



093





077



062



071



062


389 160 068


435 137 066



083



079





074





062





052
















t P-value






P le 000 P le 001 P le 005









References



















































































Appendix


Item Dimension










Introduction

Methodology


Measures



Food consumption

Social desirability


Results





References

Appendix



Results


























Factorloadingc















Factorloadinga


073



093





077



062



071



062


389 160 068


435 137 066



083



079





074





062





052
















t P-value






P le 000 P le 001 P le 005









References



















































































Appendix


Item Dimension










Introduction

Methodology


Measures



Food consumption

Social desirability


Results





References

Appendix












Factorloadingc















Factorloadinga


073



093





077



062



071



062


389 160 068


435 137 066



083



079





074





062





052
















t P-value






P le 000 P le 001 P le 005









References



















































































Appendix


Item Dimension










Introduction

Methodology


Measures



Food consumption

Social desirability


Results





References

Appendix







Factorloadinga


073



093





077



062



071



062


389 160 068


435 137 066



083



079





074





062





052
















t P-value






P le 000 P le 001 P le 005









References



















































































Appendix


Item Dimension










Introduction

Methodology


Measures



Food consumption

Social desirability


Results





References

Appendix












t P-value






P le 000 P le 001 P le 005









References



















































































Appendix


Item Dimension










Introduction

Methodology


Measures



Food consumption

Social desirability


Results





References

Appendix








References



















































































Appendix


Item Dimension










Introduction

Methodology


Measures



Food consumption

Social desirability


Results





References

Appendix




























































Appendix


Item Dimension










Introduction

Methodology


Measures



Food consumption

Social desirability


Results





References

Appendix

consumption of organic and functional food. a matter of well-being.pdf

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