BACKGROUND
When concerns on product quality and safety in global marketplace have dramatically increased in recent years, recalls on food or drugs have drawn growing public and regulatory attention.
OBJECTIVE
Proposing and discussing “information-confirmation-action,” a two-stage decision-making mechanism concerning American people’s behavioral intentions on food product recalls, this study aims to better understand how the proximate predictors of health information have influenced consumers’ compliance behavior related to public health nutrition.
METHODS
A structural equation model is tested with data from Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) collaborated with Food and Drugs Administration, a nationally representative mail survey administered by National Cancer Institute from May through September, 2015. Complete data were collected from 3,738 respondents of persons 18 years or older with an overall response rate 33.04%.
RESULTS
Findings suggest that attention, institutional trust, information gathering capacity, information seeking and sharing significantly influence respondents’ intentions on food product recalls. Consulting doctors is twice as much as likely than checking the recalled product to lead to a complete avoidance of food products related to the recall.
CONCLUSIONS
Proximate predictors of health information influenced American consumers’ decision-making process that embraces two stages regarding food product recalls— “confirmation” on the recall information, as well as “action” through their subsequent behavioral intentions dealing with the recalled food items. The confirmation part as a mediator follows up with the health information antecedents to relay their influence toward possible actions. Meanwhile, the direct effects of predictors also work on behavioral intentions when consumers respond to food recall. Practical implications are also discussed.