Food-related information, perceived risk and decisions about diet among Chinese new immigrant parents (CNIPs) in Hong Kong

Abstract

Background: Food-related issues remain a major public health problem. On one hand, risk hidden in people’s daily dietary patterns has been associated with numerous NCDs, especially among socially disadvantaged populations. On the other hand, food safety problems not only cause extensive morbidity and mortality worldwide every year, rapidly developing food technologies and globalization have made food safety more complex. Public exposures of food scandals and the intense media coverage that follows amplifies concerns among the public over food, and consequently results in “irrational” reactions and spoiled the trust over stakeholders in the food chain. Chinese new immigrant parents (CNIPs) are a socially disadvantaged but rapidly increasing segment of the Hong Kong population. They and their family members, especially children, are more likely to be exposed to food-related risks. However, their food-related concerns and perceptions of risk remain unknown. Aims: 1. To explore CNIPs’ perceptions of risk in their dietary patterns and about food safety; 2. To identify sources of food-related information used by Hong Kong CNIPs and their attitude towards these; 3. To explore the process of decision-making by CNIPs regarding foods and identify important factors that influence food choices for their households. Method: Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted among 30 CNIPs who have at last one child aged below 18 years old and who had migrated from Mainland China to Hong Kong in the past 7 years. All interviews were audio taped and transcribed. Both the interviews and the data analysis were conducted following Grounded Theory principles. Result: CNIPs’ perceptions of two types of food-related risks and relevant information from various sources, and the process of how CNIPs made their food choice for their family were described as a result of the data analysis. CNIPs expressed concerns over food-related risks and shared their perceptions of barriers to maintaining what they considered a healthy diet and to avoid food safety risk. Even if they could identify the risks related to their dietary patterns and food safety, because such risks were mostly invisible to the casual observer, most showed low self-efficacy in avoiding food-related risks tending instead to rely on government efforts to control the food-related risks. Participants provided their primary food-related information sources, expressed various levels of trust towards different information sources, and described barriers to information-seeking and the need for a trustworthy authority. The process by which CNIPs’ make food choices for their households emerged, indicating the importance of food planner’s perception of food in influencing the quality of the family diet, and displayed the value negotiation process (sensory perception, convenience, financial costs, health and nutrition considerations, social forms, food quality and other needs) in CNIPs’ food choice. Conclusion: The present study showed food-related risk perception is rooted in sociocultural factors and food modernization. The perceived lack of trustworthy information authorities increased CNIPs’ concerns over food and obstructed their information seeking. In addition, the findings highlighted main family food planners and parents as significant audience for risk communication on food, since they played essentials roles in deciding the diet quality of the entire household.