The joint moderating effect of health consciousness and healthy lifestyle on consumers’ willingness to use functional foods in Taiwan

Functional foods marketed as promoting health or reducing the risk of disease open a promising avenue for consumers to pursue a healthier life. Despite the stable growth in functional foods in Taiwan, at present little is known about whether or not consumers with varying degrees of health consciousness and different healthy lifestyles will have dissimilar attitudes toward functional foods and will vary in their willingness to use them. Regression analysis of this empirical study verifies that consumers’ attitudes toward functional foods do have an impact on their willingness to use such foods. Moreover, moderated regression analysis (MRA) reveals that the joint moderator of health consciousness and healthy lifestyle indeed exerts an impact on consumers’ willingness to consume functional foods. Finally, one-way ANOVA tests show that there are some differences between the consumers of the “Healthy Life Attentive” group and those of the “Healthy Life Inattentive” one both in attitudes toward and in willingness to consume functional foods. The empirical results and findings from this study would be valuable for the marketers in the functional food industry to formulate marketing communication strategies and facilitate this industry's development.

► Attitude to functional foods affects willingness to use functional foods.
► Joint moderator of health consciousness and healthy lifestyle affects use willingness.
► Healthy life attentive and inattentive groups hold varying attitudes to functional foods.