Willingness to pay for personalised nutrition across Europe

yesPersonalised nutrition (PN) may promote public health. PN involves dietary advice based on individual characteristics of end users and can for example be based on lifestyle, blood and/or DNA profiling. Currently, PN is not refunded by most health insurance or health care plans. Improved public health is contingent on individual consumers being willing to pay for the service. Methods: A survey with a representative sample from the general population was conducted in eight European countries (N = 8233). Participants reported their will- 25 ingness to pay (WTP) for PN based on lifestyle information, lifestyle and blood information, and lifestyle and DNA information. WTP was elicited by contingent valuation with the price of a standard, non-PN advice used as reference. Results: About 30% of participants reported being willing to pay more for PN than for non-PN advice. They were on average prepared to pay about 150% of the reference price of a standard, non-personalised advice, with some differences related to socio-demographic factors. Conclusion: There is a potential market for PN 30 compared to non-PN advice, particularly among men on higher incomes. These findings raise questions to what extent personalized nutrition can be left to the market or should be incorporated into public health programsEC (FW7) funded Food4me projectThe full text will be available 12 months after publicatio

Psychological Determinants of Consumer Acceptance of Personalised Nutrition in 9 European Countries

YesObjective: To develop a model of the psychological factors which predict people’s intention to adopt personalised nutrition. Potential determinants of adoption included perceived risk and benefit, perceived self-efficacy, internal locus of control and health commitment. Methods: A questionnaire, developed from exploratory study data and the existing theoretical literature, and including validated psychological scales was administered to N = 9381 participants from 9 European countries (Germany, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, and Norway). Results: Structural equation modelling indicated that the greater participants’ perceived benefits to be associated with personalised nutrition, the more positive their attitudes were towards personalised nutrition, and the greater their intention to adopt it. Higher levels of nutrition self-efficacy were related to more positive attitudes towards, and a greater expressed intention to adopt, personalised nutrition. Other constructs positively impacting attitudes towards personalised nutrition included more positive perceptions of the efficacy of regulatory control to protect consumers (e.g. in relation to personal data protection), higher self-reported internal health locus of control, and health commitment. Although higher perceived risk had a negative relationship with attitude and an inverse relationship with perceived benefit, its effects on attitude and intention to adopt personalised nutrition was less influential than perceived benefit. The model was stable across the different European countries, suggesting that psychological factors determining adoption of personalised nutrition have generic applicability across different European countries. Conclusion: The results suggest that transparent provision of information about potential benefits, and protection of consumers’ personal data is important for adoption, delivery of public health benefits, and commercialisation of personalised nutrition.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n u 265494 (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html). Food4Me is the acronym of the project ‘‘Personalised nutrition: an integrated analysis of opportunities and challenges’’ (http://www.food4me.org/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Health-related quality of life in type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients in a Portuguese central public hospital

Eduardo Sepúlveda,1,2 Rui Poínhos,2,3 Miguel Constante,4,5 José Pais-Ribeiro,1,2 Paula Freitas,6,7 Davide Carvalho6,71Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; 2Associação de Prevenção e Apoio à Diabetes, Porto, Portugal; 3Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; 4Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London, UK; 5Department of Psychiatry, Hospital Beatriz Ângelo, Loures, Portugal; 6Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Centro Hospitalar São João, Porto, Portugal; 7Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, PortugalBackground: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disease, the prevalence of which has registered a considerable increase, mainly in adults and elderly. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between health-related quality of life in patients with diabetes and sex, body mass index, type of diabetes and treatment regimens (type 1 diabetes: intensive versus conventional treatment; type 2 diabetes: insulin use versus non-insulin use), and duration of diabetes.Methods: One hundred and twenty-four patients with diabetes were interviewed. Health-related quality of life was evaluated using the age-adjusted Short-Form 36 dimensions (physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional, and mental health), and related to demographic and clinical variables. Independent samples t-tests and One-Way Analysis of Variance were used to compare means of independent samples. The degree of association between pairs of variables was measured by Pearson’s (r) or Spearman’s (rs) correlation coefficients.Results: The mean age of the study population was 55.7±16.4 years; 54.8% were male, and 77.4% had type 2 diabetes. Females reported worse quality of life than males in all dimensions of the Short-Form 36, except for role-physical and bodily pain. Obese patients had worse physical functioning than normal weight and overweight patients, and worse vitality than their normal weight counterparts. Type 2 diabetic patients taking insulin had lower physical functioning and vitality than those without insulin therapy. Longer duration of diabetes was associated with lower physical functioning, role-physical, general health, vitality, role-emotional, and mental health.Conclusion: Being female, obese, having type 2 diabetes and taking insulin, and having a longer disease duration are characteristics associated with worse age-adjusted quality of life in patients with diabetes.Keywords: clinical variables, demographic variables, diabetes mellitus, health-related quality of lif

Relationship between chronic complications, hypertension, and health-related quality of life in Portuguese patients with type 2 diabetes

Eduardo Sepúlveda,1,2 Rui Poínhos,2,3 Miguel Constante,4,5 José Pais-Ribeiro,1,2 Paula Freitas,6–8 Davide Carvalho6–8 1Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; 2Associação de Prevenção e Apoio à Diabetes, Porto, Portugal; 3Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; 4Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK; 5Department of Psychiatry, Hospital Beatriz Ângelo, Loures, Portugal; 6Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Centro Hospitalar São João, Porto, Portugal; 7Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; 8Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal Background: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and the presence or absence of hypertension and diabetes-related chronic complications in type 2 diabetes, and also the association between HRQoL and the number of chronic complications. Methods: One hundred patients with type 2 diabetes were interviewed. HRQoL was evaluated using the age-adjusted Short-Form 36 dimensions (physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional, and mental health). Results: The mean age of the study population was 62.7±8.7 years; 54.0% were male, and 51.0% were receiving only oral hypoglycemic agents. Chronic complications were related to worse HRQoL in different dimensions: peripheral neuropathy and cardiovascular disease (all, except bodily pain), retinopathy (physical functioning, general health, vitality, and mental health), peripheral arterial disease (physical functioning, role-physical, and general health), and nephropathy (general health and vitality). Hypertension was related to worse general health and vitality. An increased number of chronic complications was associated with worse HRQoL in all dimensions of Short-Form 36 except for the bodily pain dimension. Conclusion: The presence and increased number of diabetes-related chronic complications, and the presence of hypertension were related to worse age-adjusted HRQoL. Peripheral neuropathy and cardiovascular disease were more strongly related to age-adjusted HRQoL. Keywords: retinopathy, nephropathy, peripheral neuropathy, cardiovascular disease, peripheral arterial diseas

Willingness to pay for personalised nutrition across Europe

<p>Background: Personalised nutrition (PN) may promote public health. PN involves dietary advice based on individual characteristics of end users and can for example be based on lifestyle, blood and/or DNA profiling. Currently, PN is not refunded by most health insurance or health care plans. Improved public health is contingent on individual consumers being willing to pay for the service. Methods: A survey with a representative sample from the general population was conducted in eight European countries (N = 8233). Participants reported their willingness to pay (WTP) for PN based on lifestyle information, lifestyle and blood information, and lifestyle and DNA information. WTP was elicited by contingent valuation with the price of a standard, non-PN advice used as reference. Results: About 30% of participants reported being willing to pay more for PN than for non-PN advice. They were on average prepared to pay about 150% of the reference price of a standard, non-personalised advice, with some differences related to socio-demographic factors. Conclusion: There is a potential market for PN compared to non-PN advice, particularly among men on higher incomes. These findings raise questions to what extent personalized nutrition can be left to the market or should be incorporated into public health programs.</p