L.I. Bouwman

Personalized nutrition communication through ICT application: how to overcome the gap between potential effectiveness and reality

The potential effectiveness of personalized nutrition communication through the Internet is promising in terms of addressing personal relevance, flexibility, interactive options and amount of people that can be reached. However, little research on the contribution to behaviour change has been done. The MyFood program at Wageningen University aims at providing insight into strategies to implement personalized nutrition communication through interactive tools. In this article we present the framework for research on social acceptance of personalized nutrition communication through interactive computer technology as part of the MyFood program.

Profiling healthy eaters. Determining factors that predict healthy eating practices among Dutch adults

Research has identified multiple factors that predict unhealthy eating practices. However what remains poorly understood are factors that promote healthy eating practices. This study aimed to determine a set of factors that represent a profile of healthy eaters. This research applied Antonovskys salutogenic framework for health development to examine a set of factors that predict healthy eating in a cross-sectional study of Dutch adults. Data were analyzed from participants (n = 703) who completed the studys survey in January 2013. Logistic regression analysis was performed to test the association of survey factors on the outcome variable high dietary score. In the multivariate logistic regression model, five factors contributed significantly (p < .05) to the predictive ability of the overall model: being female; living with a partner; a strong sense of coherence (construct from the salutogenic framework), flexible restraint of eating, and self-efficacy for healthy eating. Findings complement what is already known of the factors that relate to poor eating practices. This can provide nutrition promotion with a more comprehensive picture of the factors that both support and hinder healthy eating practices. Future research should explore these factors to better understand their origins and mechanisms in relation to healthy eating practices.

Individual, social-environmental, and physical-environmental factors that underlie sense of coherence in Dutch adults

Antonovsky’s salutogenesis is a theoretical perspective on health development that explores physical, mental, and social factors that contribute to a ‘healthy life orientation’ and also a theoretical approach to behavior change. Previous studies applying salutogenesis show that a high sense of coherence (SOC), a composite measure from salutogenesis indicating one’s capacity to cope with stress, is associated with a healthy life orientation and lifestyle behaviors, including healthy eating patterns. However, limited evidence exists on the factors that underlie SOC, which could be used to strengthen this capacity as a means to enable healthier eating. Dutch adults (N = 781) participated in a cross-sectional study examining the relationship between SOC and a set of individual, social-environmental, and physical-environmental factors. The main findings indicate that high SOC was associated with a diverse set of factors including lower doctor-oriented health locus of control; higher satisfaction with weight; higher perceived levels of neighborhood collective efficacy; higher situational self-efficacy for healthy eating; lower social discouragement for healthy eating; and higher neighborhood affordability, accessibility and availability of healthy foods. These findings can inform the design of nutrition interventions that target these factors that strengthen SOC and provide the building blocks for a healthier life orientation.

Applying the salutogenic framework to nutrition research and practice.

Much research has identified a sea of factors related to unhealthy diets to make sense of why people struggle to eat healthy diets. However, little is known of factors that empower healthy eating. Antonovskys salutogenesis provides an innovative framework to study these factors and identify resources and mechanisms underlying healthy eating practices. We give recommendations for future research and provide examples of how salutogenesis has inspired our own research to gain new insights into the origins of healthy eating. Lastly, implications of using future findings in designing novel nutrition promotion strategies are outlined.

Emerging Ideas Relevant to the Salutogenic Model of Health

This chapter focuses on some emerging ideas that are stimulated by, or relevant to, the salutogenic model of health. This is also the subject, in part at least, of other chapters in this book. Therefore, the developments discussed here are meant to supplement the other contributions. The salutogenic model of health is a useful foundation for thinking about and describing departures from traditional risk factor thinking. This is evident in assets models in health promotion and the Health Development Model, which is unique in its attractive amalgamation of pathogenesis and salutogenesis. Fortigenesis makes room for health-as-well-being. The Margin of Resources Model has relevance for development of the salutogenic model of health, even if the two are not explicitly linked. Closer to the health promotion area is the Self-tuning Model of Self-care, developed by health promotion scholars, and actually used to guide intervention. The use of the Positive Deviance approach to intervention has significant potential to direct action research to exploit the links between resistance resources, the sense of coherence, and health.

Placing healthy eating in the everyday context: towards an action approach of gene-based personalized nutrition advice

Publisher Summary This chapter introduces an approach to dietary counseling that incorporates nutrigenomic information. The focus is on discussing the use of individual genetic information about susceptibilities to diet-related diseases to develop personalized nutrition advice. Nutrigenomics is an innovative field that studies the interaction between food, genes, and health at the molecular level. A genetic test for vulnerability to diet-related illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease could be added to a personal risk assessment, one that is currently comprised of indicators, such as body mass index and blood cholesterol. Results of such tests can be used to increase individual awareness about healthy eating and to develop individually tailored dietary advice. The chapter introduces a new approach that may answer why current personalized interventions are not always successful and deliver an alternative way of designing these interventions, with specific emphasis on the integration of genetic knowledge.