Factors determining the uptake and effectiveness of personalised nutritional interventions

Abstract

Personalised nutrition aims to provide advice based on dietary, phenotypic and genotypicdata. Given end-users of personalised nutrition will be the general public, understandingtheir needs is important for the success of this novel technology. The work described in thisthesis aims to understand the public perspective of personalised nutrition and to establishbest practice, services and policies which will enable personalised nutrition. Focus groups(N=64) conducted in the United Kingdom and Ireland, suggested that the constructs ofSocial Cognitive Theory would provide an alternative model for personalised nutritiondelivery. Promotion of self-efficacy through self-regulation (e.g. self-monitoring), mayencourage dietary behaviour change. Survey by questionnaire developed from previousqualitative research was completed by a representative sample from 9 EU countries(N=9381). Findings suggested that demographic factors (e.g. sex, age and education level)influence the degree to which individuals related to expected outcomes and perceivedbarriers to personalised nutrition uptake. Personalised nutrition providers should considerpromoting personalised nutrition according to country of residence, sex, age and educationlevel of the potential users. Investigation of food choice motives found preferences forsensory appeal and price to negatively impact intention to adopt personalised nutrition.Those highly motivated by health, weight control and mood held positive attitudes towardspersonalised nutrition. Personalised nutrition services should consider these factors, inorder to provide services which are affordable and the public will want to use. Finally,response to an online Proof of Principle (PoP) Randomised Controlled Trial (N=1285),comparing differing levels of personalisation and feedback intensity of personalisednutrition, found that attrition was associated with age (younger), sex (female) and lowerhealthy eating habit scores. There was an increase in nutrition self-efficacy and healthyeating habit scores, but internal (decreased) and external (increased) health locus of control were negatively impacted upon. These findings suggest that, users’ psychologicalcharacteristics may have an impact upon compliance and the success of future personalisednutritional interventions or services. Given the increasing epidemic of obesity worldwideand the global burden of NCD, these findings could have important public healthimplications.

Date of Award	Apr 2015
Original language	English
Supervisor	BARBARA STEWART-KNOX (Supervisor), Lynn J. Frewer (Supervisor), Brendan Bunting (Supervisor) & Sean Strain (Supervisor)