Consumer attitudes toward dietary supplements consumption: Implications for pharmaceutical marketing

Drawing on a socio-cognitive model, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the aim of this paper is to investigate whether the effects of social cognition on intention to consume dietary supplements moderate by health motivation.

This study was carried out using a cross-sectional survey approach. Subjects comprised 438 undergraduate students from six universities in Malaysia.

Given strong support for the extended TPB's application to dietary supplements consumption provided by the study, it seems feasible that desirable changes in attitude, social norms, and perceptions of control might lead to corresponding changes in behavioural intention. The empirical findings, which are based on multi-group analysis, show that the strength of the relationships between informational influence, consumer attitude, and their intention to consume dietary supplements are strongly influenced by health motivation.

This research sets the ground for stakeholders in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors to improve their understanding of what drives dietary supplements consumption. Armed with this knowledge, marketers and health professionals could plan and execute their marketing strategies and health interventions more effectively.

The core contribution lies in an important extension of social cognitive model by incorporating the moderating effect of health motivation. This study demonstrates the measurement validity and predictive efficacy of the proposed integrative model which can be used as a promising framework to examine other preventive health behaviours.