1. Introduction
Modern society is confronting increased health issues as the population’s eating habits and the lack of healthy food consciousness had caused obesity and poor nutrition and eating conditions among young adults [
1]. About 2.8 million people die worldwide because due to being overweight or having melancholic obesity each year [
2]. Since 2000, Malaysians are facing issues of obesity and eating disorders [
3]. Diet-related diseases are on the rise in Malaysia, and this is increasing the socioeconomic burdens on middle-income households [
1]. Scientific evidence shows that unhealthy and unbalanced food increases the risk of hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes [
4]. Whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes are essential for a healthy life besides reducing certain medical conditions [
5].
Thirty-nine percent of the world population is overweight, and about 13% of the population is obese [
3]. Malaysians are the most obese citizens in Southeast Asia, in which 48% of the population is experiencing obesity [
1]. Lifestyle changes and modern lifestyles make life more comfortable, and food security improves the dietary intake among the middle class and upper class of the developed and developing nations [
3,
6]. Poor eating habits and insufficient physical activities are causing obesity and non-communicable diseases [
7]. Healthy food consciousness is on the rise among young adults at the global level [
8]. The improved awareness of healthy food promotes the addition of nutritional labelling on food and food menus by food sellers [
9]. Restaurants provide information on food calories and serve food-conscious customers by charging premium prices.
The concern for healthy food has increased from the year 2000, and the health problems among global youth have increased in recent time [
10]. Healthy food is gaining attention and interest from the food industry and policymakers. Food industry players improve the food, and policymaker drafted specific guidelines to provide relevant food-related information [
7]. Customers who have a more significant concern for health are more inclined to consume healthy food even at premium prices [
5]. The provision of food-related information from the foodservice providers can improve customer satisfaction and food business [
11].
Having a healthy eating lifestyle is on the rise, and it reduces health risks while improving the lives of the population [
3]. Southeast Asians are known for having a higher number of obese people in the world as they have unhealthy eating habits and lifestyle [
3]. A further reason for the low adoption of healthy food is the price [
12]. For instance, low-energy food is more affordable compared to food with high energy content and is a determining factor, similar to price, toward the adoption of healthy food. While the Malaysian government supports and promotes a healthy lifestyle [
1], the adoption of healthy eating habits remains at an initial stage of adoption amongst Malaysians. In contrast, consumer awareness and government support regarding food prices can help to improve the acceptance of healthy food consumption amongst Malaysian young adults.
Similarly, unhealthy eating habits are influenced by psychological factors like attitude [
4]; the perception of barriers or benefits [
3,
6]; social factors like perceived support, behaviour, social influence [
3,
13]; and environmental factors like accessibility to healthy food and price [
5,
12].
Poor eating habits and lack of physical activities among Malaysians can enhance an unhealthy lifestyle, and the Malaysian national food policies are inadequate [
3]. Unbalanced energy intake is high among Malaysians, and causes inadequate dietary quality that can increase the risk of medical conditions [
1]. The remedy is using healthy and balanced dietary practices [
3]. This study aims to explore the intention to consume healthy food and the consumption of healthy food among Malaysian young adults by the theory of planned behaviours (TPB). It also extended the TPB by health consciousness and knowledge of healthy food, and consumption behaviour is affected by perceived barriers.
The subsequent section of the paper deliberates on pertinent works and the development of the hypotheses. The next section presents the summaries of the method, followed by the analysis and results. The last section provides a discussion and conclusion.
5. Discussion
The first five hypotheses evaluated the effects of HTC, KHF, AHF, SBN, and PBC on IHF. The study findings support the argument that HTC (
f2 =0.110) has a medium effect on IHF, and KHF (
f2 =0.032) has a small effect on IHF. However, the effects of AHF (
f2 =0.012), SBN (
f2 =0.006), and PBC (
f2 = 0.010) have a significant but small effect on IHF among Malaysian young adults [
23]. Study findings are parallel to the findings by Hoque et al. [
4] that HTC and knowledge influence the intention to consume healthy food. HTC and food knowledge were also found to significantly influence intention in developing countries as well [
8]. Furthermore, the findings from the study revealed that AHF, SBN, and PBC affected IHF, which correspond with the results in a study by Menozzi et al. [
5]. However, the effect sizes of the AHF, SBN, and PBC on IHF were significant but below the small effect threshold compared to the results of Menozzi et al. [
5]. Accordingly, this indicates the low level of AHF, SBN and PBC among the Malaysian respondents in having the intention to consume healthy food.
The next hypotheses proposed the effects of PBS and IHF on CHF. The study findings support the argument that PBS (
f2 =0.019) has a small effect on CHF, match with the results reported by Nguyen et al. [
13] in which the influences of PBS are both significant and negative regarding the use of green products. The results of our study also suggest a similar pattern in that PBS negatively influences the CHF and reduces the CHF among the study sample. However, the effect of IHF (
f2 =0.077) has a small, positive, and significant effect on CHF [
23]. Although the findings from our study are comparable to those claimed by Menozzi et al. [
5] and Maichum et al. [
27] in which intention significantly and positively affects consumption behaviour.
The next mediating effect of IHF was assessed with five mediation hypotheses. H
7A investigated the mediating effect of IHF between HTC and CHF. The finding approves the meditating effect of IHF (β = 0.092,
p = 0.000) for the relationship between HTC and CHF among Malaysian young adults for the CHF. The findings of this study support several studies [
15,
27]. H
7B hypothesised about the meditating effect of IHF between KHF and CHF. The finding confirms the meditating effect of IHF (β = 0.054,
p = 0.000) for the relationship between KHF and CHF for the healthy food consumption among Malaysian young adults. The finding of this study is supported by Maichum et al. [
27].
The next hypothesis, H
7C, evaluated the meditating effect of IHF between AHF and CHF. The finding confirms that the significant mediating effect of IHF (β = 0.029,
p = 0.000) for the relationship between AHF and CHF. The study results are supported by Yadav and Pathak [
15]. Furthermore, H
7D estimated the meditating effect of IHF between the relationship of SBN and CHF. The finding confirms the mediating effect of IHF (β = 0.020,
p = 0.004) for the relationship between SBN and CHF. The study results are supported by Yadav and Pathak [
15]. H
7E assessed the mediating effect of IHF between PBC and CHF. The finding confirms the meditating effect of IHF (β = 0.027,
p = 0.001) for the relationship between PBC and CHF. Further, IHF significantly mediates between all the factors (i.e., HTC, KHF, AHF, SBN, and PBC) and relationships with the CHF, whereby intention significantly enhances the relationship for the subject factors on the CHF.
The moderating effect of PBS was evaluated for the relationship between IHF and CHF. Study findings suggest that PBS significantly moderates the relationship between IHF and CHF. The perception of barriers reduces CHF. However, the moderating effect of PBS had a reduced effect on the relationship between the IHF and CHF. Moreover, high intention reduced the effect of PBS for CHF. However, PBS needs to be contained so as to increase the consumption behaviour for healthy foods [
13]. Our study is pioneering in testing the moderating effect of PBS for the relationship between IHF and CHF and is therefore important to understand that consumers having high intention felt less about PBS than CHF and vice versa.
The multiple-group analysis estimated the effect of respondents’ personal features of gender, residence area, and education. The PLS multi-group analysis technique investigated the effects of respondents’ characteristics. Study results reveal no significant variance for respondents’ gender on the study paths, and there is no significant difference between study paths based on gender. There is a significant difference between PBS and CHF for the respondents’ living area—namely, urban and rural areas. There is a significant difference in the path between IHF and CHF. However, there is no significant difference for other paths and no significant difference based on respondents’ area of living. Moreover, there is no significant difference for other paths of the study model based on the respondents’ education. Multigroup analysis also revealed that the effect of AHF on IHD was significantly higher among the lower-income group compared to the higher income group. Moreover, the effect of PBC on IHF was much lower among the middle-income group than that of the other two groups.
Subsequently, this study estimated the performance of CHF with the factors of HTC, KHF, AHF, SBN, PBC, PBS, and IHF. The most critical three factors for the performance for CHF are AHF, KHF, and PBC. Besides, the fourth and fifth most important factors for the performance of CHF are HTC and SBN for the CHF.
6. Conclusions
It is important to have healthy nations, and the health of a nation depends on healthy food consumption by the youth of that nation [
3]. The current study explored the effect of HTC and KHF that impact the IHF by factors of attitude, SUN, and PBC. The study also included the factor of PBS for healthy food in influencing CHF among Malaysian young adults.
Young people around the world have significant consumers at a global level [
28]. The young Malaysian population is increasingly interested in having a healthy lifestyle and getting involved in healthy food consumption [
3]. Healthy eating is increased with the personal pro-health behaviours, and it is affected by the PBS for healthy food products [
4]. Global youth is encouraged to get engaged in pro-social and personal health-related consumption [
29].
Study findings have several implications in developing effective strategies for healthy food consumption. The effects of HTC, KHF, AHF, SUN, and PBC positively influence IHF among Malaysian young adults. Attitude is the most significant contributor to the intention to consume healthy food. Marketers and government agencies must increase the information and promotion of healthy food [
3]. It helps to enhance the level of information and knowledge of general consumers and also helps to promote healthy eating habits [
12], as government intervention can ensure the reduced prices for healthy food. KHF is important for the intention to consume healthy food. CHF is significantly reduced by PBS. PBS needs to be controlled by the provision of healthy foods at superstores. Reduced prices, availability, and general consumer attitude toward healthy food can also aid in addressing the issue of obesity and empower the public to lead a healthy lifestyle [
10]. The information and promotional activities need to be activated to enhance awareness and influence knowledge and consciousness of healthy food.
The study has the following three limitations. The study analysis was performed on the cross-sectional data that have limited generalisability. Future research should consider the longitudinal data to understand the time lag between IHF and CHF. However, the study model can be utilised to explore the consumption of organic food. PBS can be utilised to understand the restricting factors for CHF among study samples. PBS is higher among urban respondents than rural samples. Future studies can explore the factors to tackle the PBS in improving the CHF. This study contributes to the healthy food adoption model by adding the factor of PBS. Future research can evaluate the role of different barriers for IHF. The current study estimated that the general perception of healthy food consumption and knowledge of healthy food is inconsistent and requires further investigation [
6]. This may be seen as a further limitation in generalising the findings of this study to a wider population. However, general knowledge of consumers regarding the influence of healthy food is a social and environmental concern [
3]. In this regard, future studies could use specific knowledge of healthy food in establishing the intention and behaviour of consumers toward a vast range of healthy food products.