18/10/2022
Dear prospective participant,
You are invited to participate in a study being undertaken by myself, Ms Nadia Lubbe, a Master’s in Consumer Science student in the Department of Life and Consumer Sciences, at the University of South Africa (Unisa). My supervisor, Dr Tertia van Eeden, is a senior lecturer in this Department.
The title of the study is: SOUTH AFRICAN CONSUMER KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PERCEPTION OF INTERMITTENT FASTING AS PART OF A WEIGHT-LOSS REGIMEN.
This study aims to use a Microsoft Teams interview to explore consumers’ knowledge, attitude and perception/practice towards intermittent fasting as part of a weight-loss regimen in South Africa. You were chosen to participate in this interview because you are South African and you participate in a blog site involving food, food preparation and eating trends.
We feel that it is important for researchers to determine consumer attitude towards certain diets, such as intermittent fasting in order to predict health-related behaviours and the factors contributing towards or hindering the success of intermittent fasting. We anticipate that this study will yield findings that could have important theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical perspective, we believe that gaining insights into South Africans’ knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding their diet will broaden our understanding of weight control and the adoption of intermittent fasting in this process. From a practical perspective, we anticipate that this research will potentially identify strategies and interventions that suit South African consumers and assist in their enjoyment of eating healthily and, in particular, how intermittent fasting may assist in this process.
If you are willing to participate in this study, kindly contact Ms Nadia Lubbe via this page to obtain the informed consent form, sign and send back to 60205997@mylife.unisa.ac.za at earliest convenience. A suitable date will be communicated during which the Microsoft Teams interview will take place.
Once you start the Microsoft Teams interview, you are under no obligation to complete it and you can withdraw from the study at any time prior to completing the interview. The interview is anonymous, meaning that pseudonyms will be allocated to the interview transcripts so that there is no way of connecting the information that you provide to you personally. The researchers furthermore undertake to keep any information provided confidential. Only the researchers will have access to the data.
If you choose to participate in this interview, it will take no longer than 30 minutes of your time. We do not foresee that you will experience any negative consequences as a result of completing the interview, and you will not be required to incur any costs to participate. You will not be reimbursed or receive any incentive for participating in this study.
By completing this interview, you agree that the information you provide may be used for research purposes, including dissemination through peer-reviewed publications. Interested participants will be required to obtain a copy of the articles from the primary researcher.
All records will be kept for five years for auditing purposes whereafter they will be permanently destroyed. No hard copies will be available as the data collection is completed electronically. Future use of the stored data will be subject to further Research Ethics Review and approval if applicable.
The research was reviewed and approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (2022/CAES_HREC/155), of the University of South Africa. A copy of the approval letters can be obtained from the primary researcher if you so wish.
The primary researcher, Ms Nadia Lubbe, can be contacted at 60205997@mylife.unisa.ac.za. Should you have any questions regarding the ethical aspects of the study, you can contact the Research Ethics and Integrity Advisor, Prof MA Antwi on 011-670-9391 or antwima@unisa.ac.za.
Your willingness to participate in this study and your input will be much appreciated.
Kind regards,
Nadia Lubbe
