Identifying a knowledge gap of blueberry health benefits: The role of education, income, generation and gender

Lower socioeconomic groups may not learn as quickly or retain as much knowledge as higher socioeconomic groups because higher socioeconomic groups often have easier access to the relevant resources. With many health benefits associated with blueberry consumption, this study examined consumers’ knowledge level of blueberry benefits, and investigated whether a knowledge gap existed among high and low socioeconomic groups and among different demographic groups. An online survey using non-probability sampling was distributed to grocery shoppers from 31 states in the United States. Post-stratification weighting of data was used to adjust the bias resulted from non-probability sampling. The respondents answered on average more than half of the questions correctly about blueberry benefits. A knowledge gap exists between those with some college education or a college degree and those with a high school degree or lower education. While respondents demonstrated acceptable knowledge of blueberry benefits, an opportunity exists to increase the awareness of the health benefits of blueberries, especially among those with lower levels of education. Future research should determine the relationship between knowledge gap and a broader range of factors such as motivation and social contacts. Disciplines Agricultural Education | Communication | Educational Sociology Comments This article is published as Qu, S. , Bradley, T. , & Rumble, J. N. (2018). Identifying a knowledge gap of blueberry health benefits: The role of education, income, generation and gender. Journal of Southern Agricultural Education Research, 68. Posted with permission. This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ageds_pubs/59 Identifying a knowledge gap of blueberry health benefits: The role of education, income, generation and gender Shuyang Qu Assistant Professor Iowa State University 206D Curtiss Hall Ames, IA 50014 squ@iastate.edu 515-294-8343 Tori Bradley toriraebradley@ufl.edu University of Florida Joy N. Rumble Assistant Professor University of Florida 121D Bryant Hall P.O. Box 112060 Gainesville, FL 32611 jnrumble@ufl.edu 352-273-1663 Research type: Quantitative Research Priority Area: Ag Communications Identifying a knowledge gap of the health benefits of blueberries: The role of education, income, generation and gender Lower socioeconomic groups may not learn as quickly or retain as much knowledge as higher socioeconomic groups because higher socioeconomic groups often have easier access to the relevant resources. With many health benefits associated with blueberry consumption, this study examined consumers’ knowledge level of blueberry benefits, and investigated whether a knowledge gap existed among high and low socioeconomic groups and among different demographic groups. An online survey using non-probability sampling was distributed to grocery shoppers from 31 states in the United States. Post-stratification weighting of data was used to adjust the bias resulted from non-probability sampling. The respondents answered on average more than half of the questions correctly about blueberry benefits. A knowledge gap exists between those with some college education or a college degree and those with a high school degree or lower education. While respondents demonstrated acceptable knowledge of blueberry benefits, an opportunity exists to increase the awareness of the health benefits of blueberries, especially among those with lower levels of education. Future research should determine the relationship between knowledge gap and a broader range of factors such as motivation and social contacts.