Determinants of consumer preferences towards functional foods with seaweed ingredients

Fraunhofer ISI, together with the Institute for Economic Policy Research at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Engineering at the University of Bologna, Italy, and Counterpoint (UK) Ltd., London, UK, investigates the factors which influence the market for and the consumer behaviour towards functional food products with ingredients from seaweeds, in order to subsequently develop appropriate consumer communication strategies. The present paper describes the methods and results of a consumer survey carried out in two large EU countries with different market structur es for functional foods (the UK and Italy, the data collection in the third country (Germany) is still ongoing), to determine the most important factors that contribute to the consumers\u2019 attitudes and purchasing behaviour towards functional foods with seaweed ingredients. To identify the most important potential factors of consumer behaviour and to supplement the literature analysis, focus groups with consumers were carried out in Germany and the UK. Issues discussed there were the relationship of food consumption and health, functional foods as well as seaweed as source of food ingredients. On this basis, a mall intercept survey is organised in order to verify consumer preferences towards a limited set of selected attributes, also including health-related properties. A conjoint design was developed including six dimensions with two or three factorial levels each. A fractional orthogonal design with 19 product profiles is presented to the respondents, asking them to rank the profiles according to their preference. A short self-administered questionnaire completes the data collection. Data are collected in or directly in front of supermarkets, participants are recruited from the customers which have just purchased foods in order to reach those persons who are responsible for buying foods for the household. Different sampling points per country are used to increase the variability in the socio-demographic background of the participants. The analysis is based on nU=200 cases from the UK and nI=235 from Italy. The results show that the general acceptance for foods with seaweed ingredients is unexpectedly high. The conjoint analysis reveals the importance of information concerning food products with ingredients from seaweeds, and an unexpectedly low relevance of the price as well as of the claimed health effect. This lack of information is stressed by a relatively large group of persons who \u2013 according to their answers in the questionnaire \u2013 have no clear-cut opinion about seaweed ingredients for foods, although many of them have bought other functional foods throughout the last year

Avoiding adverse drug reactions by pharmacogenetic testing: A systematic review of the economic evidence in the case of TPMT and AZA-induced side effects

Objectives The study aims at evaluating the economic evidence related to testing for genetic variants of the drug-metabolizing enzyme, TPMT. Detecting TPMT genetic variants before the administration of azathioprine (AZA) has the potential to prevent serious and costly adverse drug reactions (ADRs), such as neutropenia. In particular, our analysis concentrated on assessing the reliability of data on costs of neutropenia and performing the tests, the two main cost categories that could inform an economic evaluation of TPMT pharmacogenetic testing. Methods A systematic literature review was performed to gather evidence on the costs of testing and neutropenia. Articles were critically appraised for their comprehensiveness and quality. To better estimate costs of TPMT tests, a small-scale survey of European diagnostic laboratories was conducted. Results Only seven articles were retrieved specifying the costs associated with the management and treatment of AZA-induced neutropenia. Most of these studies are based on theoretical modeling reconstructed with key-informants or on very few cases of ADRs, and either the methodology for cost calculation is not specified or costs are based on national cost databases and tariffs. After critical appraisal of these studies, we considered 2,116 € as the most reliable estimate for the cost of a case of neutropenia. Literature review accompanied by the survey of several diagnostic laboratories also provided an estimate (68 €) for TPMT testing. Based on these values, the net cost per prevented case of neutropenia equals to 5,300 €. Conclusions Solid economic considerations related to TPMT pharmacogenetic testing are still limited by underreporting of ADRs and high level of approximation related to cost data. Ad hoc observational studies and the ADR recording process embedded in pharmacovigilance systems, established across Europe, should represent more reliable sources of cost data in the future

Technikakzeptanz und Nachfragemuster als Standortvorteil Abschlussbericht

Available from TIB Hannover: F04B1112 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEBundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung, Berlin (Germany); VDI/VDE Technologiezentrum Informationstechnik GmbH, Berlin (Germany)DEGerman

FVIII inhibitor development according to concentrate: Data from the EUHASS registry excluding overlap with other studies

PubMed ID: 26208036[No abstract available