‘Language is the source of misunderstandings’–impact of terminology on public perceptions of health promotion messages

Table 7 Summary of differences in perceptions of the four prompt-terms arising from different methodologies used during the study

	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3
	Pilot phase	Word-association^{a, b}	Focus groups^c
Healthy eating	A lifestyle choice – you chose to make a long term commitment	↑ Foods thought healthy *	A general term, passive (24 %)
Healthy eating		↑ Foods to avoid ***	A general term, passive (24 %)
Eating for health	You have to do it, for a medical condition or to lose weight	↑ Foods to avoid ***	A proactive decision, due to medical condition (41 %)
Eating for health		↑ Benefits of doing it **	Hard work and worthy
Balance diet	Everything in moderation – can have a treat today if you’re good tomorrow	↑ Foods thought healthy *	Old fashioned
Balance diet		↑ Macronutrients ***	More about dieting and weight loss (30 %)
Nutritional balance	Technical term, boring and uninteresting	↓ Foods thought healthy *	More modern
		↓ Foods to avoid ***	Specifically for people involved in sports (12 %)
		↓ Macronutrients ***	Specifically for people involved in sports (12 %)

^a ↑ ↓ Indicates whether the number of responses for each theme was higher (↑) or lower (↓) than the expected count in the χ² test of association with levels of significance * p <0.05, ** p <0.01, *** p <0.001
^b Themes with fewer responses could not be tested for statistical significance as fewer than 5 expected counts
^c Initially 60 % of focus group participants (n = 10) saw little difference between the four terms. These differences emerged following group discussion

ISSN: 1471-2458