Theory of Planned Behavior applied to the choice of food with preservatives by owners and for their dogs.

Autor: Pedrinelli V; School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil., Rossi A; Cão Cidadão, São Paulo, Brazil., Brunetto MA; School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2024 Jan 19; Vol. 19 (1), pp. e0294044. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jan 19 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294044
Abstrakt: Many pet owners make food choices for their pets that are similar to those they make for themselves, and food characteristics such as the presence of preservatives can influence this decision. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is a tool used to predict intentions and behavior and can be an important indicator for the pet food industry. The aim of this study was to investigate pet owner behavior regarding food with or without preservatives, based on the behavior prediction of TPB. A questionnaire was distributed with questions related to direct (attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control) and indirect (behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, and intentions) measures for the analysis of TPB. For the statistical analysis the structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. The correlation between owner behavior and the behavior imposed on their dog's diet was evaluated by paired T test or paired Wilcoxon test according to variables' adherence or not to normality, respectively. A total of 1,021 answers were evaluated after the inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied. The results indicated that TPB was effective in predicting the intentions (r2 = 0.58 for dogs and r2 = 0.59 for owners) and behavior (r2 = 0.58 for dogs and r2 = 0.57 for owners) regarding the intake of diets without preservatives. It was observed that owners are more concerned with the diet of their dogs than their own and they believe that the intake of preservatives can be prejudicial to the health of their dogs (p<0.001). However, owners trust more in pet food manufacturers than human food manufacturers (p<0.001). Therefore, it can be concluded that TPB can be an important tool to understand consumer behavior towards their dog food, and that the industry should intensify its approach on safety of preservatives in pet food, since many owners still believe they can be prejudicial to dogs.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2024 Pedrinelli et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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