Sources of information on healthy eating in a Mediterranean country and the level of trust in them: a national sample in a pan-European survey.
OBJECTIVE
To know the sources of information and the level of trust in these sources in a population to facilitate the promotion of healthy dietary habits.


METHODS
A national survey was carried out according to an established protocol on a representative sample of 1009 Spanish subjects over 15 years of age selected by a random multietapic procedure. This study belongs to the Spanish partnership in a pan-European Survey about sources of information on healthy eating and their level of trust. The analysis was focussed on the evaluation of the 5 most frequently chosen sources.


RESULTS
There was a trend towards a greater use and trust in "Health professionals" than other sources. Thus, about 26% of the respondents mentioning "health professionals" as the source of information on healthy eating. However, "TV/radio" (25.7%) was almost so often selected as "Health professionals". About 17.4% of subjects declared that they obtained no information at all on healthy eating. Subjects with university level of studies exhibited a greater mention of "Health professionals", while individuals belonging to higher socio-economic levels preferred "TV/radio". The degree of trust was higher for messages obtained from "Health professionals" (89.9%) and the "Department of Health" (78.7%) and lower for information obtained from "newspaper" (34.2%) and "advertising" (17.6%).


CONCLUSIONS
Nutrition and health educators must promote dietary guidelines through the appropriate channels for communicating messages to different targets groups.
López-Azpiazu
I
I
Department of Physiology and Nutrition, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Navarra, Pamplona.
Martínez-González
M A
MA
León-Mateos
A
A
Martínez
J A
JA
Kearney
J
J
Gibney
M
M
D022126:Access to Information; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004034:Diet Surveys; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D058870:Food, Organic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013030:Spain