title: Children and adolescents' attitudes towards sugar reduction in dairy products.
abstract: The development of strategies to reduce sugar intake of children and adolescents has been deemed necessary to cope with the global obesity epidemic. In this context, the aims of the present work were to study attitudes towards sugar reduction in three dairy products of children and adolescents of two income levels and to assess if these attitudes were modulated by the inclusion of the traffic light system on labels. A total of 646 children and adolescents from three primary/secondary schools in Montevideo (Uruguay) participated in the study. A total of twelve labels were designed following a full factorial design with three variables: dairy product (3 levels: yogurt, chocolate-flavoured milk and vanilla milk dessert), sugar reduction claim (2 levels: absent and present "20% less sugar") and traffic light system (2 levels: absent and present). Children had to evaluate their expected liking of the labels and to answer a check-all-that-apply question composed of terms related to tastiness, healthfulness and fun. Sugar claim significantly increased children and adolescents' expected liking scores (p=0.01), suggesting they had a positive attitude towards sugar reduction in the evaluated dairy products. However, the influence of sugar reduction claim on hedonic expectations and healthfulness perception was modulated by the inclusion of the traffic-light system on labels (p=0.01). This front-of-pack nutrition labelling scheme increased their unhealthfulness perception of products with high sugar content and could potentially discourage their consumption. Age and income modulated the influence of these strategies on hedonic and healthfulness perception (p<0.05).
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Engineering, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hye-Jong
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación Básica en Psicología, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de la República, Tristán Narvaja 1674, C.P. 11200, Montevideo, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Leandro
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Machín
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación Básica en Psicología, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de la República, Tristán Narvaja 1674, C.P. 11200, Montevideo, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Alejandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arrúa
authors.affiliation: Sensometrics & Consumer Science, Instituto Polo Tecnológico de Pando, Facultad de Química, Universidad de la República, By Pass de Rutas 8 y 101 s/n, C.P. 91000 Pando, Canelones, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Lucía
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Antúnez
authors.affiliation: Sensometrics & Consumer Science, Instituto Polo Tecnológico de Pando, Facultad de Química, Universidad de la República, By Pass de Rutas 8 y 101 s/n, C.P. 91000 Pando, Canelones, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Leticia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vidal
authors.affiliation: Sensometrics & Consumer Science, Instituto Polo Tecnológico de Pando, Facultad de Química, Universidad de la República, By Pass de Rutas 8 y 101 s/n, C.P. 91000 Pando, Canelones, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Giménez
authors.affiliation: Observatorio de Seguridad Alimentaria, Instituto Nacional de Alimentación, Piedras 165, C.P. 11000 Montevideo, Uruguay.
authors.forename: María Rosa
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Curutchet
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación Básica en Psicología, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de la República, Tristán Narvaja 1674, C.P. 11200, Montevideo, Uruguay; Sensometrics & Consumer Science, Instituto Polo Tecnológico de Pando, Facultad de Química, Universidad de la República, By Pass de Rutas 8 y 101 s/n, C.P. 91000 Pando, Canelones, Uruguay. Electronic address: gares@fq.edu.uy.
authors.forename: Gastón
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ares
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000818:Animals; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003611:Dairy Products; D000073417:Dietary Sugars / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005515:Food Labeling / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008892:Milk; D009753:Nutritive Value; D057181:Pleasure; D014583:Uruguay; D015014:Yogurt
chemical_list: D000073417:Dietary Sugars
keywords: CATA questions; Chocolate-flavoured milk; Conjoint analysis; Income; Milk desserts; Sugar; Yogurt