Brief report: Compensatory health beliefs are negatively associated with intentions for regular fruit and vegetable consumption when self-efficacy is low

Vera Storm*, Dominique Reinwand, Julian Wienert, Tim Kuhlmann, Hein De Vries, Sonia Lippke

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Compensatory health beliefs (the beliefs that an unhealthy behaviour can be compensated by a healthy behaviour) can interfere with adherence to fruit and vegetable consumption recommendations. Fruit and vegetable consumption, social cognitive variables and compensatory health beliefs were investigated via self-report at baseline (T0) and 8-week follow-up (T1) in N = 790 participants. Self-efficacy predicted fruit and vegetable consumption intentions. Planning mediated between intentions and T1 fruit and vegetable consumption. Compensatory health beliefs negatively predicted intentions at low self-efficacy levels only. The results propose the use of self-efficacy interventions to diminish the negative effects of compensatory health beliefs when forming fruit and vegetable consumption intentions and foster planning to translate intentions into behaviour.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1094-1100
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Health Psychology
Volume22
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2017

Keywords

  • cardiovascular disease
  • compensatory health beliefs
  • fruit and vegetable consumption
  • intention
  • self-efficacy
  • PLANNING INTERVENTION
  • PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY
  • NUTRITION
  • BEHAVIOR

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