Consumer attitudes toward dietary supplements consumption

Purpose– Drawing on a socio-cognitive model, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the aim of this paper is to investigate whether the effects of social cognition on intention to consume dietary supplements moderate by health motivation.Design/methodology/approach – This study was carried out using a cross-sectional survey approach. Subjects comprised 438 undergraduate students from six universities in Malaysia.Findings – Given strong support for the extended TPB's application to dietary supplements consumption provided by the study, it seems feasible that desirable changes in attitude, social norms, and perceptions of control might lead to corresponding changes in behavioural intention. The empirical findings, which are based on multi-group analysis, show that the strength of the relationships between informational influence, consumer attitude, and their intention to consume dietary supplements are strongly influenced by health motivation.Practical implications – This research sets the ground for stakeholders in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors to improve their understanding of what drives dietary supplements consumption. Armed with this knowledge, marketers and health professionals could plan and execute their marketing strategies and health interventions more effectively. Originality/value– The core contribution lies in an important extension of social cognitive model by incorporating the moderating effect of health motivation. This study demonstrates the measurement validity and predictive efficacy of the proposed integrative model which can be used as a promising framework to examine other preventive health behaviours

Enhancing consumption value through inclusive spirituality: a relational approach

Marketers have highlighted their concerns for social problems and called for more inclusive and sustainable service to reduce sufferings and improve the well-being of humanity. Despite improvements in the recent past, the world is still facing issues of poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, all challenges at the forefront of the Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2019). These pressing issues has led marketers to ponder how marketing can contribute to improvements for vulnerable communities. The authors in this study advocate for applying a broader and nuanced adopting of religiosity and spirituality to support service providers to design and provide inclusive service for customers to support people’s quality of life and enhance people’s wellbeing. Using the hospice service context, the authors opine how the existing consumption value and relational approach can play roles in value creation for a broad range of actors beyond the immediate patient. This study highlights inclusive service provision by hospices with a focus on spirituality (despite people’s religious stance) to reduce suffering (physical or psychological) to give people dignity to better their quality of life. This study advocates how service marketing contributes to value creation by being socially inclusive. Overall, this study shows how service marketing can become more relevant beyond the mainstream focus on customer loyalty and organisation’s financial profitably

Fostering inclusive religious and spiritual working environment in Higher Education Institutions

With globalisation and internationalisation, there has been a continuous increase in the diversity of students and staff in higher education institutions globally. Therefore, it has become increasingly important to foster inclusive working environments which cater for the diverse religious and spiritual needs of staff. This chapter explores the differences between the concepts of religiosity and spirituality and argues that focusing on religion only may provide a rather limited perspective. Hence the chapter provides a persuasive discussion of the need to consider spiritual inclusion for higher education institutions to address religious and spiritual inclusivity. Some examples drawn from western countries such as the UK are provided to demonstrate some practical approaches that higher education institutions can adopt to develop inclusive religious and spiritual working environments. In addition, the chapter explores the benefits and challenges of ensuring religious and spiritual inclusivity, as well as the link between religious and spiritual inclusivity and organisational performance

Fostering an Inclusive Religious and Spiritual Working Environment in Higher Education Institutions

With globalisation and internationalisation, there has been a continuous increase in the diversity of students and staff in higher education institutions globally. Therefore, it has become increasingly important to foster inclusive working environments that cater to the diverse religious and spiritual needs of staff. This chapter explores the differences between the concepts of religiosity and spirituality and argues that focusing on religion only may provide a rather limited perspective. Hence, the chapter provides a persuasive discussion of the need to consider spiritual inclusion for higher education institutions to address religious and spiritual inclusivity. Some examples drawn from Western countries such as the UK are provided to demonstrate some practical approaches that higher education institutions can adopt to develop inclusive religious and spiritual working environments. In addition, the chapter explores the benefits and challenges of ensuring religious and spiritual inclusivity and the link between religious and spiritual inclusivity and organisational performance

Understanding barriers to optimal medication management for those requiring long-term dialysis: Rationale and design for an observational study, and a quantitative description of study variables and data

Background: Rates of medication non-adherence in dialysis patients are high, and improving adherence is likely to improve outcomes. Few data are available regarding factors associated with medication adherence in dialysis patients, and these data are needed to inform effective intervention strategies. Methods/design: This is an observational cross-sectional study of a multi-ethnic dialysis cohort from New Zealand, with the main data collection tool being an interviewer-assisted survey. A total of 100 participants were randomly sampled from a single centre, with selection stratified by ethnicity and dialysis modality (facility versus home). The main outcome measure is self-reported medication adherence using the Morisky 8-Item Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8). Study data include demographic, clinical, social and psychometric characteristics, the latter being constructs of health literacy, medication knowledge, beliefs about medications, and illness perceptions. Psychometric constructs were assessed through the following survey instruments; health literacy screening questions, the Medication Knowledge Evaluation Tool (Okuyan et al.), the Beliefs about Medication Questionnaire (Horne et al.), the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (Broadbent et al.). Using the study data, reliability analysis for internal consistency is satisfactory for the scales evaluating health literacy, medication knowledge, and beliefs about medications, with Chronbach's α > 0.7 for all. Reliability analysis indicated poor internal consistency for scales relating to illness perceptions. MMAS-8 and all psychometric scores are normally distributed in the study data. Discussion: This study will provide important information on the factors involved in medication non-adherence in New Zealand dialysis patients. The resulting knowledge will inform long-term initiatives to reduce medication non-adherence in dialysis patients, and help ensure that they are addressing appropriate and evidence based targets for intervention