Comparing the study participants regarding HBM variables
Subsequently, the differences/similarities among the students
regarding the HBM’s variables across gender, whether students
were urban or rural, and years of study were analyzed using a
t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results, listed in
Table 4, reveal that there is a significant difference between female
and male students regarding perceived severity, perceived benefits,
and willingness to use organic foods. The mean score of
females (Mean = 3.56) was higher than that of males (Mean = 3.27)
in all three variables. In contrast to men, female students perceived
greater severity of threats from using conventional foods and
more benefits from consuming organic foods. Consequently, they
are more concerned about the health aspects of foods and are more
willing to use safe products (i.e., organic foods). This result is compatible
with Wandel & Bugge (1997) who found that females are
more interested in trying out organic foods than males. In contrast,
Lockie, Lyons, Lawrence, & Mummery, (2002) found that the levels
of consumption were similar between men and women.
Regarding living place of people, our results showed that there
was significant difference between rural and urban students in
terms of perceived benefits and willingness to use organic foods
(Table 4). The mean score of rural students was lower than that
of urban students either in the benefits they perceived from consuming
organic foods or their tendency to use them. These results
are very interesting because many rural students were directly
related to agriculture in the sense that they come from farming
families. This is in line with Selfa and Qazi (2005), who found that
rural consumers have less interest in organic foods than urban
consumers.
The result of the mean comparison of the HBM’s variables using
the analysis of variance (ANOVA) further revealed that there were
no significant differences between students according to level of
education with respect to the HBM variables, except for perceived
benefits and perceived barriers. As Table 5 demonstrates, a student
in her/his last year of study has a better perception of the benefits
of using organic foods and a greater ability to accept consuming
these foods than the other three groups of students. In other words,
students in their 4th year of study feel more benefits from using
organic foods and that using organic foods is more under their control
than students in the other three groups. This analysis also
revealed that the number of years of education (at university)
can affect the perception of individual with respect to organic
foods use.