Knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, values, behaviours and conditions related to
health and nutrition, eating patterns and food customs. For example, people
might not know which foods are nutritious; poorly prepared food may influence a student's attitude about food that may be highly nutritious; local beliefs or superstitions may prevent people from eating certain foods; people might choose
to ignore conditions of malnutrition because they have been with them for
generations; or people might not be familiar with precautions to safely preserve
food. This information is crucial to design effective health promotion strategies
because values, beliefs and attitudes positively or negatively influence behaviours
and conditions associated with nutrition and health. Without information about
these helping or hindering forces, educational interventions are not likely to be
targeted to the most relevant factors that contribute to health or malnutrition in
the community and thus are unlikely to achieve the desired result.