A nexus between environmental literacy, environmental attitude and healthy living

Which messages about healthy and sustainable eating resonate best with consumers with low socio-economic status?

Consumers with low socioeconomic status (SES) eat less healthy and sustainable diets than consumers with higher status. This is attributed, at least in part, to inequalities in health communication. An online survey with 134 socioeconomically disadvantaged consumers in Italy was conducted to test the effectiveness of tailor-made communication material (infographics) about healthy and sustainable eating (HSE). Participants were recruited at two social supermarkets by a social service organisation as well as via a crowdsourcing platform. Participants found information about HSE delivered through infographics moderately effective in increasing motivation, capability, and opportunity for HSE, and moderately useful and likely to impact their behaviour. Certain messages were more effective than others for native consumers, while migrants showed more indifferent responses to the various messages and manifested lower motivation to shift towards HSE, limited access to and seeking of nutrition-related information, and lower trust in information sources. Selecting which messages to deliver strategically, while also considering differences between segments of the target audience and their preferred sources and channels for communication, is promising; yet, structural changes related to food's affordability and availability are also needed to facilitate an effective communication.

[Environmental risks and health literacy: a systematic review]

BACKGROUND

Environmental factors can play an important role in pathogenesis. However, the understanding of the relationship between environmental risks and health in the general population appears to be poor. The aim of this systematic review is to describe the state of research on the relationship between health literacy (HL) or environmental health literacy (EHL) and environmental risks differentiated by the researched environmental risks, the affected population, the measurement and level of HL or EHL, and their interaction with other variables.

METHODS

A systematic literature search was conducted using the Pubmed, Scopus, and LIVIVO databases. Original studies in German or English that investigated HL or EHL in the context of an environmental risk or pollutant in a population were included. The Navigation Guide was used to assess the methodological quality of the studies.

RESULTS

Twenty-four studies were included in the qualitative analysis. The operationalization of HL or EHL was heterogeneous in 22 studies. Nine studies referred to environmental issues in general, and 15 studies analyzed individual environmental risks. Eleven studies referred to the general population, 12 to specified target groups, and 1 study examined both. The level of HL or EHL proved to be in need of improvement in all populations. Interventions such as trainings were able to increase HL or EHL.

DISCUSSION

The heterogeneous operationalizations impede the comparability of the studies. Future work should target the standardization of methodological aspects. Overall, it appears that interventions such as trainings were conducive to improving HL or EHL. In practice, this should therefore be given greater focus in order to increase HL or EHL.

An assessment of environmental literacy, behaviors, attitudes and lifestyle factors of college students

OBJECTIVE

Evaluate associations between environmental literacy, attitudes, sustainability behaviors, health, and lifestyle factors among undergraduates.

PARTICIPANTS

Convenience sample of 345 students at a mid-sized, rural university completed the survey fall 2019.

METHODS

Descriptive statistics, correlations, and exploratory factor analysis were used to evaluate data.

RESULTS

Overall, though participants exhibited a lack of environmental knowledge (average score five of ten), they possessed pro-health and pro-environment attitudes and were likely to engage in corresponding behaviors (e.g. recycling, waste reduction, etc.). Principal axis factor analysis identified five underlying factors: liberal/progressive views, individual eco-friendly practices, personal health, healthy lifestyle, and waste reduction.

CONCLUSION

Correlational analyses indicated students who value health and engage in healthier behaviors also value the environment. While most agreed environmental sustainability is important, recycling behaviors and sustainability knowledge were mediocre. Understanding underlying factors such as environmental attitudes and sustainability-related behaviors can drive intervention strategies to move students to action.

Investigating tourists' intention toward green hotels in Malaysia: a direction on tourist sustainable consumption

International tourists in Malaysia have been playing a significant role in the economy. However, tourists' consumption of natural resources could be a threat to the environment. Green practices in the hotel industry have triggered a great opportunity to save water and energy consumption and maintain sustainable practices in the tourism and hospitality industries. This is a study on international tourists' intention to visit green hotels in Malaysia with related factors such as green availability, green price sensitivity, attitude, and subjective norm. For data collection, the researchers used self-administered questionnaires and distributed them to international tourists in Malaysia. For the analysis, structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied for analysis. Results found that green price sensitivity, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control positively influence tourists' intention to visit green hotels in Malaysia. Attitude also mediated between green price sensitivity and tourists' intention to visit green hotels in Malaysia. This study has shown the novelty by establishing the relationships among variables and contributing to the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which will benefit future researchers. The study posed several recommendations for practitioners as there is a need to maintain appropriate standards of environmentally friendly practices in hotels, and consumers' support for consuming green-related products impacts their survival, growth, and sustainability. It will help hotel managers learn more about their guests and create more effective marketing plans.

The human well-being and environmental degradation nexus in Africa

Environmental degradation continues to attract interest from academics, policymakers, and other stakeholders. However, empirical studies have been limited in the choice of human well-being indicators. Therefore, this study extends the literature by broadening the nexus between human well-being and environmental degradation in 29 African countries from 1970 to 2019. Preliminary tests adaptable to effects of cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity in panel dataset were adopted, alongside the cross-sectional auto-regressive distributed lag model. Findings from the study showed that the adopted human well-being indicators such as globalisation, life expectancy, and human capital development were environmentally enhancing both in the short and long terms. In contrast, income growth was environmentally degrading in the short and long terms. At the same time, urbanisation was only environmentally detrimental in the long term with no significant short-term effect. Natural resource rent which served as a control variable was environmentally degrading both in the short and long terms. Consequently, this study confirms the synergy approach between the environment and human well-being and the trade-off hypothesis in African countries. Thus, African countries' general resource management policy significantly determines the impact their path to human well-being enhancement has on the environment.

Correlation Study between Rural Human Settlement Health Factors: A Case Study of Xiangxi, China

With the emergence of the Industry 4.0 era in China, more refined methods are being proposed for healthy living requirements for human settlements. Since the rural human settlements in China are relatively backward, this study aimed to investigate the influencing factors of human health. First, through field surveys and questionnaires conducted with villagers in Xiangxi’s traditional villages in Hunan Province, we analyzed the factors affecting human health qualitatively and quantitatively using the SPSS software. We identified three main dimensions affecting human health in rural human settlements including human behavioral activities, physical environment, and natural environment. Then, we used correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis methods to analyze the correlation between environmental factors and human health. The results showed that human activities, building physical environment, and natural environment are significantly correlated with human health. Among them, human behavior has the strongest correlation with health. This research contributes to creating healthy human settlements and guiding the creation of a healthy environment in rural China.

Predicting Consumer Green Product Purchase Attitudes and Behavioral Intention During COVID-19 Pandemic

This work has aimed to investigate the consumers' green product purchase attitudes and behavioral intention during COVID-19 pandemic. Data was collected through a survey method of 503 consumers in Malaysia. Data were analyzed using the partial least square method. The findings revealed that fear of COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on green product behavioral intention. Green product literacy, green product orientation, and social influence have a significant influence on green product purchase attitudes. The results also indicated that consumers' green product purchase attitudes mediate the effect of green product literacy, green product orientation, and social influence on behavioral intention. The findings of this work will provide strategically relevant references to green marketers and retail managers in the understanding of consumers' green product purchase attitudes and green product behavioral intention during the ongoing uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Environmental Literacy among College Students

Environmental degradation has become a serious source of concern for contemporary society, giving rise to efforts in the way of advocacies, conferences and awareness campaigns at different levels. It has been widely acknowledged that environmental literacy, which is an outcome of environmental education, can provide a strong foundation for future environmental responsiveness, as well as help in the transition towards more sustainable societies and healthy living. The present study carried out among 280 college students including 145 males and 135 females in the age group 17–30 years to assess the levels of environmental knowledge and attitudes. A structured questionnaire was used to gather the information using interview technique as data collection tool. Almost 40% of the subjects were unaware about the environment, while less than half of the respondents were unwilling to protect endangered species, unwilling to change their lifestyle for protecting environment, unconcerned by other's land use, and consider runoff of water and global warming as exaggeration. The overall awareness was about 61.5%, while the attitude towards environmental protection was further lower at 50%. Thus, to conclude there is a need for environmental literacy initiatives at the university level to generate a better appreciation, involvement, and the optimistic ideas necessary to contribute to the quality of our environment.