The Theory of Planned Behaviour and dietary patterns: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective Promoting adherence to healthy dietary patterns is a critical public health issue. Models of behaviour, such as the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) allow programme designers to identify antecedents of dietary patterns and design effective interventions. The primary aim of this study was to examine the association between TPB variables and dietary patterns. Methods A systematic literature search was conducted to identify relevant studies. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to calculate average correlations. Meta-regression was used to test the impact of moderator variables. Results In total, 22 reports met the inclusion criteria. Attitudes had the strongest association with intention (r+ = 0.61) followed by perceived behavioural control (PBC, r+ = 0.46) and subjective norm (r+ = 0.35). The association between intention and behaviour was r+ = 0.47, and between PBC and behaviour r+ = 0.32. Moderator analyses revealed that younger participants had stronger PBC-behaviour associations than older participants had, and studies recording participants' perceptions of behaviour reported significantly higher intention-behaviour associations than did those using less subjective measures. Conclusions TPB variables were found to have medium to large associations with both intention and behaviour that were robust to the influence of key moderators. Recommendations for future research include further examination of the moderation of TPB variables by age and gender and the use of more valid measures of eating behaviour. AbstractPromoting adherence to healthy dietary patterns is a critical public health issue. Models of behavior, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) allow program designers to identify antecedents of dietary patterns and design effective interventions. The primary aim of this study was to examine the association between TPB variables and dietary patterns. A systematic literature search was conducted to identify relevant studies. Random-effects metaanalysis was used to calculate average correlations. Meta-regression was used to test the impact of moderator variables. In total, 22 reports met the inclusion criteria. Attitudes had the strongest association with intention (r + = 0.61) followed by perceived behavioral control (PBC, r + = 0.46) and subjective norm (r + = 0.35). The association between intention and behavior was r + = 0.47, and between PBC and behavior r + = 0.32. These associations were robust to the influence of key moderators. However, analyses revealed that younger participants had stronger PBC-behavior associations than older participants, and studies recording participants' perceptions of behavior reported significantly higher intentionbehavior associations than those using less subjective measures. Recommendations for future research include further examination of the moderation of TPB variables by age and gender and the use of more valid measures of eating behavior.3

Using meta-analytic path analysis to test theoretical predictions in health behavior: An illustration based on meta-analyses of the theory of planned behavior

“…We demonstrated the importance of a simultaneous test by conducting a new analysis of two recent meta-analyses of the theory of planned behavior applied to two health behavioral contexts: alcohol (Cooke et al, 2014) and dietary behaviors (McDermott et al, 2015). Specifically, we conducted a path analysis specifying theory predictions using the meta-analytically derived correlations behavioral control on intentions (β < .075) in alcohol behaviors is a cause for concern for theory validity (c.f., Seaton et al, 2010).…”

“…Despite this, meta-analytic syntheses of relations among constructs from a given theory that use path analysis to test the pattern of effects among its constructs are still relatively rare. For example, two recent meta-analyses of the theory of planned behavior in two health-related behaviors alcohol (Cooke et al, 2014) and dietary (McDermott et al, 2015) behaviors, respectively, reported zero-order meta-analytically derived correlations among the variables but did not conduct a path analysis to test model predictions. In both articles the initial stages of the analyses were competently conducted and included an informative search and analysis of candidate moderators to resolve heterogeneity in the effects.…”

Effectiveness of a Web-Based Health Education Program to Promote Oral Hygiene Care Among Stroke Survivors: Randomized Controlled Trial

“…This is not an unusual feature in studies as not all domain changes are associated with GI over time [38,39]. This perhaps can be attributed to the context-specific settings of the study, the type of intention, and indeed the general intention practice [40,41]. …”

The Effect of the Education Program on the Adherence Intention to the Dietary Sodium Restriction and the Amount of Sodium Intake in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure

“…A review of 22 studies showed a moderate to severe association between the constructs of the behavioral intention and adherence to dietary patterns (22). A study demonstrated that the attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control were the significant predictors of the intention of women with HIV toward the use of dietary supplements (23).…”