Association between Food Label Unawareness and Loss of Renal Function in Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Study in South Korea

Abstract

Objectives: To examine sex differences in the association between food label unawareness and loss of renal function among South Korean diabetic patients aged ≥30 year and determine whether reading food labels when choosing which food products to consume plays a potential role in slowing the progression of renal disease. Methods: Data from the 2016–2017 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were used for the analysis. Renal function was determined by the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease estimated glomerular filtration rate, and food label unawareness was defined as being unaware of the food label when choosing a food product for consumption. Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the association between food label unawareness and loss of renal function among South Korean diabetic patients. Results: Four hundred and eighty-seven diabetic patients (men: 274; women: 213) were enrolled. Loss of renal function was associated with food label unawareness in only male diabetic patients (men: β = –10.01, standard error (SE) = 5.08, p = 0.0506; women: β = –0.30, SE = 5.14, p = 0.9528). A strong association was found between loss of renal function and food label unawareness among socially isolated male diabetic patients who lived in a one-generational household, did not have a spouse, and ate alone. Conclusion: Cultivating habits of reading food labels and inducing social facilitation may play a potential role in managing loss of renal function among male diabetic patients.

Association between Use of Nutrition Labels and Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease: The Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2008–2019

“…Relatively few epidemiologic studies have examined the disease risk associated with the use of nutrition labels [26,51,[60][61][62][63][64][65][66], and most examined associations with metabolic conditions [60,[63][64][65][66][67][68] and diabetes [51,62,65]. To our knowledge, only one cross-sectional study of diabetic patients reported an association between the use of nutrition labels and renal function decline [26]. Consistent with our results, the study reported that unawareness of nutrition labeling is associated with significantly greater loss of renal function [26].…”

“…Since the inception of nutrition labeling in the late 1980s, the majority of previous studies examining nutrition labels have primarily focused on demonstrating their impact on healthier dietary behavior [56] and improvements of diet quality [57][58][59][60]. Relatively few epidemiologic studies have examined the disease risk associated with the use of nutrition labels [26,51,[60][61][62][63][64][65][66], and most examined associations with metabolic conditions [60,[63][64][65][66][67][68] and diabetes [51,62,65]. To our knowledge, only one cross-sectional study of diabetic patients reported an association between the use of nutrition labels and renal function decline [26].…”

“…Other sensitivity analyses conducted were including additional comorbid conditions in the model and excluding cases with end-stage renal condition, defined as stage V. A test for trend was conducted by including the ordinal variable of nutrition labels use as a continuous term and evaluating its statistical significance using a Wald test. To examine whether associations varied by population characteristics, we also conducted analyses stratified by sex [43][44][45][46][47][48], age [26,49], obesity status [50][51][52], hypertension [52,53], and diabetes [52,54]. The statistical significance of the heterogeneity of associations was evaluated using the Wald test for the cross-product term between use of nutrition labels and stratification factors.…”

“…However, to date, only one cross-sectional study of diabetic patients has examined the association between the awareness and use of nutrition labels and renal function, reporting better renal function with greater awareness and use of nutrition labeling [26]. No studies have examined the association of CKD risk with use of nutrition labels among the general population.…”

Readable Labels and Moderating Effect of Individual Personality Traits Effect on Consumer Healthy Packaged Food Selection Intention

“…The content of information at food label regarding nutrients is very decisive. The increase of information at food label can create complexity for consumer at point of purchase (Joo, Lee, Choi, & Park, 2020). In contrary to that inadequate information can also confuse consumer for getting the insight about food product (Lioutas, 2014).…”