Genetic nutrition programmes – disappointment or empowered health? Exploring consumer engagement to understand social health change
ISSN: 2042-6763
Article publication date: 14 January 2022
Issue publication date: 11 March 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to gain insight into how consumers interact with a commercially available genetic nutrition programme, DNAfit, to explore health change via an intervention.
Design/methodology/approach
Focus groups were conducted between June and October 2019, pre-, during- and post-intervention, with a total sample of 14 younger (aged 25–44 years) and 14 mature (aged 45–65 years) cohorts from New Zealand. Qualitative thematic analysis was completed with the help of NVivo software.
Findings
Younger participants in this study engaged less overall with DNAfit, felt the service did not match their lifestyles and did not encourage their believability of genetic personalised nutrition (GPN). In contrast, mature participants had positive engagement with GPN, as their motivation to use the service fit with their motivation for longevity. Overall, social uptake in health changes based on GPN is likely to depend on life stage.
Originality/value
This paper adds to limited social marketing research, which seeks novel avenues to explore how consumers engage with GPN technologies to drive social change, assisting social marketers on how to more effectively deliver health programmes that allow consumer-driven interaction to build health capabilities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: Financial support for the conduct of the research was obtained from the University of Auckland Food and Health Programme Seed Funding and the Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF) from the Department of Marketing, University of Auckland. These funding sources had no involvement in any aspect of this study, such as the study design, data collection, analysis or interpretation, report writing or decisions on submission for publication.
Citation
Conroy, D.M., Errmann, A., Young, J. and Fifita, I.M.E. (2022), "Genetic nutrition programmes – disappointment or empowered health? Exploring consumer engagement to understand social health change", Journal of Social Marketing, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 174-190. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSOCM-04-2021-0077
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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