Factors Affecting Healthy Oil Consumption Behaviors in Iranian Housewives: Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

Background: Evaluation of oil and fat consumption plays a key role in predicting the nutritional health of community members. Objectives: The current study aimed at predicting the adoption of healthy behaviors related to oil consumption among housewives based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with 160 housewives. We used the multi-stratified sampling method and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine the association between TPB constructs and housewives’ behavioral intention to consume healthy oil. Results: Liquid oil was the most frequently consumed oil (59.4%) while solid oil had the lowest frequency (6.9%). Also, 1.3% of the participants used red meat highly saturated in fat while 88.8% did it not at all. Path analysis was run to predict healthy behaviors concerning oil consumption in light of TPB. The TPB adopted in the current study enjoyed a desirable fitness, and explained 31% of behavior intention variance and 15% of behavior variance (B = 0.37). Also, the attitude was the strongest predictor of behavioral intention. Conclusions: The TPB and its constructs were used to determine factors affecting healthy oil consumption behaviors among Women in Iran. This result indicates that promoting behavioral intention by focusing on attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms may promote healthy oil use.