Specific health beliefs mediate sex differences in food choice.

Objective: Although sex differences in dietary habits are well documented, the etiology of those differences is still a focus of research. The present study examines the role of specific health beliefs regarding healthy amounts of food for food choice and its relation to sex, more specifically, the assumption that sex differences in food choices are mediated by differentiating health beliefs. Method: 212 German participants (44.3% female) aged 18-70 answered an online self-report questionnaire on their dietary habits and health beliefs, based on the recommendations of the German Nutrition Society. Results: Most of the anticipated sex differences in food choice and some differences in health beliefs were found. The mediation hypothesis was partly supported, as the relationship between sex and fruit, vegetable, and fish consumption was mediated by the respective health beliefs. However, no mediation effects were found for meat, egg, cereal, and milk product consumption. Conclusion: The support for the mediation hypothesis aligns with previous findings and indicates that health beliefs might be an important pathway to fostering healthier food choices, especially for men. Nonetheless, sex differences in food choice were only partially mediated by sex differences in specific health beliefs, indicating that future studies might benefit from parallel mediation analyses to reveal the impact of other relevant factors influencing sex differences in food choice.

Evaluating self-reported retrospective average daily fruit, vegetable, and egg intake: Trustworthy-Sometimes!

Retrospective self-reports are commonly used to assess dietary intake. Yet, their use is criticized as it is unclear whether the underlying assumptions for valid self-reports are met: Individuals have to consider the behavior of all days in the retention interval and weigh the behavior of all days equally. This study examines whether these assumptions for retrospective self-reports are met and whether interindividual differences in self-report performance are relevant regarding these assumptions. Ninety-two participants aged 18-61 years participated in seven sequential 24-h recalls and one retrospective 7-day recall concerning their intake of fruit, vegetables, and eggs. A multiple linear regression approach was used to examine the relation between the daily reported dietary intake and the 7-day recall. In the overall sample, the requirements for retrospective self-reports were not tenable. Distinguishing good and poor self-reporters based on a rational criterion showed that the requirements can be taken as given for good self-reporters, whereas poor self-reporters base their retrospective self-reports mostly on recency effects. The underlying requirements for retrospective self-reports appear to be met in two thirds of the sample, supporting the use of retrospective self-reports to capture dietary behavior. Future research should investigate characteristics separating good from poor self-reporters.

Faking self-reports of health behavior: a comparison between a within- and a between-subjects design.

BACKGROUND: This study examines people's ability to fake their reported health behavior and explores the magnitude of such response distortion concerning faking of preventive health behavior and health risk behavior. As health behavior is a sensitive topic, people usually prefer privacy about it or they wish to create a better image of themselves (Fekken et al., 2012; Levy et al., 2018). Nevertheless, health behavior is often assessed by self-report questionnaires that are prone to faking. Therefore, it is important to examine the possible impact of such faking. METHODS: To replicate the findings and test their robustness, two study designs were realized. In the within-subjects-design, 142 participants repeatedly answered a health behavior questionnaire with an instruction to answer honestly, fake good, and fake bad. In the between-subjects design, 128 participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups that filled out the health behavior questionnaire with only one of the three instructions. RESULTS: Both studies showed that successful faking of self-reported preventive and health risk behavior was possible. The magnitude of such faking effects was very large in the within-subjects design and somewhat smaller in the between-subjects design. CONCLUSION: Even though each design has its inherent merits and problems, caution is indicated regarding faking effects.