Search Results (28)

Background/Objectives: Recent decades have seen a remarkable westernization of diets and a decline in adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD). This study examined the eating habits of a representative sample of Italian university students to identify the determinants of adherence to the MD and the most relevant actions to improve their well-being. Methods: The Mediterranean Diet Quality Index for Children and Adolescents (KIDMED) and Sustainable Healthy Diet (SHED) index questionnaires were used to explore MD adherence as the primary outcome, and dietary behavior sustainability, respectively. Sociodemographic, anthropometric, and lifestyle information was also collected. Results: The final sample included 1434 subjects (18–24; 60% female). The median (IQR) KIDMED score was 6.0 (4.0–8.0) and 33% showed a high adherence to the MD. Having breakfast, eating fruit and vegetables at least once a day, consuming pasta or other grains almost daily, and using olive oil at home were among the most common positive aspects of students’ diets. However, regular consumption of fish, nuts, legumes, dairy products, and a second serving of fruit and vegetables was less prevalent. Having an active lifestyle, eating more plant products, and having more sustainable dietary behaviors in terms of the SHED index, were the main determinants of a high KIDMED score. Likewise, graduate students, daily consumers of plant-based meat alternatives, and students attending university canteens daily were more likely to adopt healthier diets. Conclusions: Future actions are crucial to create a food environment that facilitates healthy and sustainable dietary choices among young adults, such as improving the nutritional quality of processed products and regulating their promotion, as well as implementing initiatives to improve university food services and encourage the use of campus dining facilities. Full article

Although integrating smart technologies into service encounters can provide hoteliers with a competitive advantage, managing customer satisfaction in smart hotels remains challenging due to limited knowledge of how to prioritize improvements across smart service and traditional service. Therefore, the study aims to evaluate customer satisfaction with both smart and non-smart technology attributes in smart hotels, identify attributes with high improvement priorities, and uncover factors contributing to customer dissatisfaction. This study proposes a prioritization method for service improvement in smart hotels by analyzing online reviews from 42 smart hotels. The findings reveal that customers’ technological needs are well met in smart hotels, but smart hotels need to promptly address three key issues: long check-in wait times, staff attitude and competence, and breakfast quality. To maximize customer satisfaction, managers should adopt a hybrid service model that strikes the right balance between technology and human interaction. Full article

Hotels are one of the fastest-growing sectors in the tourism industry, and sentiment analysis plays a vital role in improving business performance and supporting sustainable practices. This paper proposes a novel framework combining topic mining and aspect-based sentiment analysis to examine 29,334 hotel reviews in Henan province in China, with the aim of informing strategies for sustainable hotel development. Our results reveal six key attributes of customer concern, particularly emphasizing family experiences, which reflect Henan’s appeal as a family tourism destination. Additionally, we uncover sentiment quadruples, including categories, aspect terms, opinion terms, and polarities, thus enabling a dual-dimensional evaluation of factors influencing customer satisfaction. The results reveal that service mainly influences overall category-level satisfaction, while bed, front desk, and breakfast primarily drive aspect-level satisfaction. This study provides valuable insights into customer feedback, offering empirical support for optimizing services and guiding the sustainable strategic development of regional hotels. Full article

Background/Objectives: This study aimed to examine regional cancer screening participation rates among South Korean adults aged 40 and over and to identify biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors associated with cancer screening behavior using the biopsychosocial model. Methods: This research was a secondary analysis study. Data were obtained from the 2023 Korean Community Health Survey, focusing on adults residing in cities that exhibited the highest and lowest rates of cancer screening. Differences in cancer screening rates by city were visualized using a location-based open service platform. Variables were categorized into biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors, and logistic regression analysis was conducted to ascertain the factors associated with screening participation. Results: The cancer screening rate for adults aged 40 or older in 17 metropolitan cities in Korea ranged from 64.9% to 76.0%, and the national average was 70.9%. In the city with the highest screening rate, participation was positively associated with oral health, physical activity, breakfast-eating habits, and past smoking. In the city with the lowest screening rate, higher screening participation correlated with family cohabitation and satisfaction with the social environment. Conclusions: Our results suggest that cancer screening participation rates vary across regions and that the factors associated with cancer screening participation differ between regions with the highest and lowest participation rates. These results provide evidence for targeted interventions that take into account regional factors to improve cancer screening rates in South Korea. Full article

Taiwan’s bed and breakfast (B&B) industry has experienced significant development in its nearly 25-year history, transforming from B&B run by retirees to mature service providers that adopt modern business and Internet technology skills in line with sustainable lodging development. This study explores the basic professional capabilities required for the sustainable development of B&B management, including social-emotional intelligence (EQ) capabilities and their impact on the quality of sustainable tourism services. The study used the K–S Z test to assess the importance of various abilities, including emotional intelligence abilities, financial management abilities, technical skills abilities and marketing abilities. The findings, validated with p-values less than 0.05, confirm the multi-disciplinary nature of sustainable tourism management skills in B&Bs and highlight their importance in sustainable service attitudes and strategic marketing. The identified capabilities are not only crucial for the sustainable development of the B&B industry, but are also crucial for contributing to the B&B’s national diplomacy and sustainable development status in global tourism. This study provides both novice and experienced B&B operators with actionable insights to improve their operational efficiency and achieve sustainable tourism development goals. Full article

This study aims to dynamically mine the demands of hotel consumers. A total of 378,270 online reviews in the cities of Beijing, Chengdu, and Guangzhou in China were crawled using Python. Natural language processing (e.g., opinion mining and the BERT model) and an improved Kano model (containing One-dimensional, Attractive, Indifferent, and Must-be) were utilised to analyse online hotel reviews. The results indicate that the hotel attributes that consumers care about (e.g., Clean, Breakfast, and Front Desk) are dynamically fluctuating, and the attention and satisfaction of corresponding attributes will also change. This study classified consumer demand into eight types across cities and found that it changes over time. In addition, we also found that hotel attributes, satisfaction and attention, and consumer demands vary among different cities. Existing studies of capturing consumer demand are usually time-consuming and static, and the results are subjective. This study compared and analysed the consumer demands of hotels in different cities via a dynamic perspective, and used hybrid methods to improve the granularity of the analysis, expanding the general applicability of the Kano model. Hotel managers can refer to the results of this article to allocate resources for improvement and create competitive hotel services. Full article

Background and Objectives: School-focused public food procurement and service policies (SPFPs) are increasingly being recognised as interventions that can improve the nutritional quality of food served in schools amidst growing overweight/obesity and persistent micronutrient deficiencies, stunting and wasting in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The review aims to investigate the impact of such policies on school food environments and nutritional outcomes of children/adolescents (5–18 y) in SSA and explore challenges and facilitators to implementing effective procurement. Methods: A mixed methods systematic review of studies in SSA published between 2012 and February 2023 was conducted. Studies were included if they reported on a publicly funded school meal (e.g., breakfast, lunch, snack, take home ration) and a nutritional (anthropometric, micronutrient deficiencies, food consumed) or food environment outcome. Quantitative findings were synthesised descriptively. Qualitative evidence was synthesized using an adapted eight-step school food system framework to guide coding (food production, wholesale & trading, transportation & storage, processing & distribution, food preparation, distribution to students, student-stakeholders and community involvement). This framework, along with infrastructure support domains, namely leadership, governance and monitoring/evaluation, guided categorisation of authors’ policy-related recommendations. Results: A total of 33 studies (26 qualitative, 7 quantitative) were included from nine SSA countries. Evidence from the quantitative studies was mixed and did not demonstrate any measurable impact of SPFPs on nutritional outcomes. In total, 53 implementation challenges, particularly in food distribution, food preparation and wholesale & trading, and 37 implementation facilitators, notably student stakeholders, community involvement and processing & distribution, were identified across the school food system. Infrastructure support and policy recommendations from authors span across the school food system, particularly for improving food preparation and engaging students in programming. Discussion: While little evidence on the impact of publicly funded school meal programmes and nutrition outcomes was found (partly explained by inadequate research design to evaluate impact), qualitative evidence suggests that developing or revising SPFPs to include healthy (nutritious and safe) food at all levels of the school food system has much potential. The array of policy action needed to improve implementation of school meal programmes across the school food system calls for action at multiple scales of governance (national/local government), as well as engaging schools and local communities to strengthen stakeholder involvement. Full article

The spatial structure of Bed and Breakfast (B&B) development plays a crucial role in promoting integrated urban–rural development. However, existing B&B research has predominantly focused on single large cities, neglecting to explore the spatial patterns of B&B development and their influencing factors from the perspective of urban–rural differences. To address this gap, we conducted a comprehensive case study in an all-for-one tourism demonstration area in Hainan Province, China. We adopt geospatial analysis methods and ridge regression models to investigate the characteristics of urban–rural disparities in B&B distribution and to identify the primary factors influencing their spatial arrangement. The research findings reveal valuable insights: (1) B&B establishments in the tourism demonstration area exhibit clustering with notable variations in clustering intensity between urban and rural regions; (2) essential factors affecting the spatial distribution of B&Bs include transportation accessibility, reliance on tourism attractions, B&B development infrastructure, and the availability of living services; (3) tourism resource dependence emerges as the most significant driving force behind B&B agglomerations in the tourism demonstration area; and (4) road network density, hotel service availability, and neighborhood residential density are three additional critical factors affecting B&B distribution, with their influence varying between urban and rural B&Bs. Based on these key findings, we propose development strategies for optimizing B&Bs’ spatial structure in the tourism demonstration area and outline a blueprint for fostering integrated urban–rural development. Full article

User-generated online ratings have become a prominent tool for hotels to enhance overall customer satisfaction. Prior research on online ratings has mainly considered commercial destinations, whereas research on religious destinations is limited. This study uses the IPA technique and beta regression analysis to investigate the destination’s (commercial and religious) varying effects on the relationship between hotel service quality attributes and customer satisfaction. In total, data from 338 hotels representing 82,704 customer reviews in two Saudi Arabian cities (Alkhobar and Makkah) were collected from Booking.com and analyzed. Makkah was selected as a key religious heritage destination, whereas Alkhobar was chosen as a commercial destination as it hosts major sea resorts, recreational parks, and shopping destinations. The results indicate that commercial and religious destination tourists do not have similar perceptions of the selected eight hotel service quality attributes. While comfort, facilities, and value-for-money service quality attributes were considered important for commercial destination tourists, religious destination tourists viewed location, cleanliness, and breakfast as important. Since effective management of customer satisfaction is essential for hotels’ profitability and sustainability, therefore it is imperative to identify and prioritize service quality attributes related to each group of customers. This will enable the efficient application of limited resources. Full article

The United States (US) School Breakfast Program provides Breakfast After The Bell (BATB) to alleviate hunger, provide nutrition, and ensure students have a healthy start to the day. This study aims to review the evidence regarding the impact of BATB on students’ diet and academic outcomes, including participation, diet quality and consumption, body mass index (BMI) and weight status, attendance, classroom behavior, and academic performance. The articles were extracted from three electronic databases and published since the start of the literature through December 2022. Studies were peer-reviewed; quantitative research articles or government reports; and conducted in public or private elementary, middle, and high schools. Quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Thirty-seven studies were included in this review. This review found BATB increased school breakfast participation, improved diet quality, and improved classroom behavior particularly among students from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds and students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The impact of BATB on BMI and weight status, academic achievement and attendance was mixed. This review is particularly timely given free school meals and updated school nutrition standards are being prioritized over the next decade in the US. Thus, it is important to evaluate the nutritional and educational outcomes of BATB. (PROSPERO registration: CRD42021289719). Full article

Background: In 2018, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued flexibilities to the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, relaxing the nutrition standards for milk, whole grains, and sodium. This study examines the implementation decision-making among Missouri school food services and the impact of implementing these flexibilities on the meals served. Methods: We developed a survey using the Consolidated Framework of Implementation to determine schools’ implementation of the flexibilities and factors related to implementation. To determine how the implementation of flexibilities affected participation, we merged the survey results with school-level meal county data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. We used ordinary least squares regression to examine how flexibility adoption related to the number of meals served. Results: Most schools implemented the wheat, milk, and sodium flexibilities. Common reasons for implementation were increasing participation, meeting students’ preferences, expanding menu variety, and saving money. The implementation of flexibilities was associated with more lunches and breakfasts being served per month, particularly among free and reduced-price meals. Conclusions: Continued research is needed to determine how the increased uptake of school meals that do not fully meet dietary guidelines by low-income students results in inequities in health outcomes. The findings can inform the design and implementation of future policies, especially as new rules related to flexibility design are determined. Full article

This paper explores a missing link in the literature on welfare reform in the U.S.—the effects on positive health and social behaviors of adolescents, who represent the next generation of potential welfare recipients. Previous research on welfare reform and adolescents has focused almost exclusively on negative behaviors and found that welfare reform led to decreases in high school dropout and teenage fertility among girls, but increases in delinquent behaviors and substance use, particularly among boys. Using nationally representative data on American high school students in 1991–2006 and a quasi-experimental research design, we estimated the effects of welfare reform implementation on eating breakfast, regular fruit/vegetable consumption, regular exercise, adequate sleep, time spent on homework, completion of assignments, participation in community activities or volunteering, participation in school athletics, participation in other school activities, and religious service attendance. We found no robust evidence that welfare reform affected any of these adolescent behaviors. In concert with the past research on welfare reform in the U.S. and adolescents, the findings do not support the implicit assumption underlying welfare reform that strong maternal work incentives would increase responsible behavior in the next generation and suggest that welfare reform had overall adverse effects on boys, who have been falling behind girls in terms of high school completion for decades. Full article

In the present Internet age, customers have turned to online booking websites to meet their demand for quality hotel services and convey their experiences. As hotels can survive and succeed by satisfying consumers and obtaining high online ratings, this research predicts the key factors impacting these ratings. The study analyzes online consumer review data gleaned from the popular Booking.com website for hotel ratings near the key religious heritage site in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The research applies the four-factor theory due to its importance in studying consumer satisfaction and prior non-application to the hospitality and tourism industry. This theory extended the two-factor theory to report four distinct sets of factors: satisfiers, dissatisfiers, criticals, and neutrals. Accordingly, the present research presents a novel categorization of key predictive factors and enriches the literature, which categorized factors as either satisfiers or dissatisfiers. Consequently, facilities and comfort are critical factors, while cleanliness, staff, and location are satisfiers; the value for the money spent is dissatisfier; the availability of breakfast and restaurants are neutral factors. The hospitality industry, specifically the hotel industry, can focus on characteristics of the four distinct sets of factors; various nations can leverage the findings to boost their hospitality and tourism sectors. Full article

A hotel is interested that the guest buys from it not only accommodation, but also catering services, preferably an all-inclusive option. However, many tourists choose only accommodation or accommodation with breakfast, and dinners and other things are purchased outside the place of accommodation. Therefore, it is important to know the eating behavior of tourists, and what hotels must do to make guests want to use food services at the place of accommodation. The purpose of this article is to show the reasons for not buying full meals at hotels during vacations by the inhabitants of Poland. The study used the diagnostic survey method with the help of the direct survey technique. A proprietary survey questionnaire was developed. The direct survey was conducted among 3071 tourists across the country. The study was conducted in 2019–2020. For data analysis, a discriminant function was chosen to examine the differences between groups based on a set of selected independent variables. When buying tourist holidays in travel agencies, 32.40% of Poles bought the all-inclusive option, 33.15% bought breakfast and dinner, 12.47% bought breakfast only, while 21.98%, bought accommodation without any food. For tourists who did not buy any meals at the hotel, the most important factors for eating out were mainly unwillingness to adapt to the hours of serving meals at the place of accommodation, and the desire to control the quality of raw materials needed for preparation of individual dishes. Among hotel guests who only had breakfast at the hotel, the main reasons for eating lunch and dinner outside of the hotel were the desire to try local dishes in regional restaurants, to get to know different restaurants, and to eat meals made entirely of ecological materials. A big barrier to buying meals in a hotel was the lack of offering dietetic dishes or their too high price. Older people dined out because of the lack of dietary dishes or their too high price and because they look for restaurants that serve meals prepared from ecological ingredients. Younger people, on the other hand, did not dine at the hotel because they did not want the hours of serving meals at the hotel to limit their sightseeing in the city and surroundings. Full article

Low-income, minority seniors face high rates of hypertension that increase cardiovascular risk. Senior centers offer services, including congregate meals, that can be a valuable platform to reach older adults in underserved communities. We implemented two evidence-based interventions not previously tested in this setting: DASH-aligned congregate meals and Self-Measured Blood Pressure (SMBP), to lower blood pressure (BP) at two senior centers serving low-income, racially diverse communities. The study enrolled congregate meal program participants, provided training and support for SMPB, and nutrition and BP education. DASH-aligned meals delivered 40% (lunch) or 70% (breakfast and lunch) of DASH requirements/day. Primary outcomes were change in BP, and BP control, at Month 1. Implementation data collected included client characteristics, menu fidelity, meal attendance, SMBP adherence, meal satisfaction, input from partner organizations and stakeholders, effort, and food costs. We used the RE-AIM framework to analyze implementation. Study Reach included 94 older, racially diverse participants reflecting neighborhood characteristics. Effectiveness: change in systolic BP at Month 1 trended towards significance (−4 mmHg, p = 0.07); change in SMBP reached significance at Month 6 (−6.9 mmHg, p = 0.004). We leveraged existing community-academic partnerships, leading to Adoption at both target sites. The COVID pandemic interrupted Implementation and Maintenance and may have attenuated BP effectiveness. DASH meals served were largely aligned with planned menus. Meal attendance remained consistent; meal satisfaction was high. Food costs increased by 10%. This RE-AIM analysis highlights the acceptability, feasibility, and fidelity of this DASH/SMBP health intervention to lower BP at senior centers. It encourages future research and offers important lessons for organizations delivering services to older adults and addressing cardiovascular risk among vulnerable populations. Full article