Sociodemographic differences in the comprehension of nutritional labels on food products

Abstract

Objective: To examine comprehension of nutrition labels across sociodemographic groups using a measure of health literacy.

Methods: Cross-sectional survey of a community sample of adults including an adapted version of the Newest Vital Sign for Canadian Nutrition Facts table on prepackaged grocery products, including numerical conversion questions for calorie content and percent daily value.

Results: Approximately two thirds of participants were able to correctly identify calorie content and percent daily value from the nutrition label. Participants with higher education and higher income, those aged ≤ 64 years, and those who look at nutritional facts or calories were significantly more likely to estimate the correct calorie content. Participants were significantly more likely to correctly identify percent daily value if they reported higher education, higher income, and white ethnicity.

Conclusions and implications: Approximately one third of participants could not comprehend basic information on Canadian nutrition labels. Lower socioeconomic status was associated with poorer performance.

Keywords: food labels; health literacy; nutrition labeling; nutrition policy.