Abstract:
The Restaurant Nutrition Menu Labeling Requirement of the Affordable Care Act will require chain restaurants to provide calorie information on menus. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) includes attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control constructs, and explains attributes that lead to behavior intention and use of menu labeling in meal selection. Studies on characteristics of college students who use menu labeling in restaurants are limited. The purposes of this study were to determine predictors of intention to use calorie information, whether students changed meal choices after viewing calorie information, and describe groups of students most likely to change meal selections in fast food and full-service restaurants. Two hundred undergraduate students, 19 years or older, participated in this quasi-experimental study. Students participated in the full-service (n=100) or fast food (n=100) portion of the study. Participants selected a meal from a menu without calories, selected a meal from the same menu with calorie information, and completed a survey that addressed TPB constructs, intention, and potential barriers. Backward elimination was used to determine significant predictors of intention to use labels and changes in calories of meals ordered. Students ordered significantly fewer calories with posted calorie information on both fast food (909 versus 838 calories, p=0.02) and full-service (1370 versus 1203 calories, p<0.01) menus. Subjective norms (p<0.01) and perceived behavioral control (p=0.03) were predictive of greater intention to use calorie information on fast food menus but not of a change in caloric intake. Barriers such as cost (p=0.07) and perceived ease of label use (p=0.01) were associated with fewer calories ordered while lack of time (p=0.05) and hunger (p=0.02) were associated with an increase in calories ordered with posted information on fast food menus. Attitudes (p=0.04), subjective norms (p<0.01), and perceived behavioral control (p<0.01) predicted greater intention to use calorie information on full-service menus. Lack of time (p=0.08), frequent Nutrition Facts panel use (p=0.05), and positive attitudes (p<0.01) towards menu labeling predicted decreases in calories ordered with posted information on full-service menus. Menu labeling could provide information that college students need to select lower calorie items at both fast food and full-service restaurants.
