Response frequencies were analysed by gender, age, level of deprivation and prompt-term used.
Cluster analysis revealed 16 key themes, with responses affected by prompt-term used, age, gender and socio-economic status.
The Pearson χ test was used to test statistical significance in the patterns of these themes elicited by the prompt-term used, gender, age and deprivation level.
Eating for Health was the only prompt-term to elicit the response 'I don't do it' (n = 5) although there were too few expected responses in this category to allow χ testing.
Significantly different patterns of response were observed across the 16 key themes when analysed according to gender, age, deprivation category of participants and prompt-term, using Pearson's χ test of association or Fisher's exact test as appropriate (Table 5).
Initially, 60%% of the focus group participants perceived no difference between the four prompt-terms.
Eligible participants were shown one of the four prompt-terms, in strict rotation, using standard cards.
The word-association exercise produced 1,386 individual responses across the four prompt-terms, 260 of which were unique.
The word-association exercise produced 1,386 individual responses from the four prompt-terms, with 130 unique responses associated with a single term.
Four key prompt-terms used to convey the idea of improving health through diet were selected for testing: Healthy Eating, Eating for Health, Balanced Diet and Nutritional Balance.
All four prompt-terms tested elicited a different set of responses, in both the word association exercise and the focus groups.
