Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the associations between food literacy, consumer profiling and purchasing behaviour in a sample of Italian consumers.Design/methodology/approach: Participants (N = 194) completed an online survey including personal data, two questionnaires on purchase behaviour and food consumption, the General Trust Scale (GTS), a questionnaire assessing individual chronotype and two scales about food literacy: one investigating nutritional knowledge (short food literacy questionnaire, SFLQ) and the other focussing on procedural skills (self-perceived food literacy scale, SPFL). Associations between food literacy, consumer profiling and purchase behaviour were analysed with linear regression models.Findings: Participants with specific education in nutrition reported higher scores in food literacy. The final score of food literacy was predicted by a greater attention to nutritional content and nutritional properties of products. Women paid more attention to nutritional properties than men, and they obtained higher scores in SFLQ. Evening types obtained lower scores in SFPL compared to intermediate and morning chronotypes. Body mass index (BMI) was negatively correlated to SPFL score, while it was associated with the easy availability of a product, so that obese (BMI ≥ 30) subjects considered the easy availability of a product more important compared to non-obese ones (BMI < 30).Originality/value: This study investigates the influence of personal and psychometric variables of consumer profiling on food literacy and consequently on purchase behaviour, paving the way for implementing healthier food consumption policies. These findings reinforce the primacy of specific education in building healthy eating habits.

This study aimed to explore the relationship between chronotype and resilience, sleep quality, and post-traumatic stress reactions during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Italy. An online survey was distributed through social networks during forced home confinement, collecting data from1298 participants of 19 different Italian regions. Chronotype was evaluated using the reduced version of the Morningness/Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ); sleep quality was assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); resilience levels were measured by the 10-item version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC10); post-traumatic stress reactions were assessed by the 6-item version of the Impact of Event Scale (IES6). Resilience and sleep quality were significantly lower in the evening compared to non-evening types, as well as in females as compared to males. Moreover, resilience was negatively correlated with post-traumatic stress reactions and positively correlated with sleep quality. A negative correlation was also reported between sleep quality and post-traumatic stress reactions. Sleep quality was identified as a possible mediator between chronotype and resilience, and between resilience and post-traumatic stress reactions, after controlling for age and sex. These findings provide new insights into the role of chronotype in adapting to continuous stressful situations. Sleep quality seems to mediate the causal path between the antecedents of resilience and the development of trauma. Further research is needed to explore the suitability of primary interventions based on chronobiology and sleep hygiene to mitigate the impact of pandemic-related home confinement measures on mental health among the general population.

The present study aimed at evaluating how post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are associated with rest-activity circadian and sleep-related parameters, assessed both subjectively (via questionnaires) and objectively (via actigraphy). Specifically, we explored whether chronotype could moderate the association between sleep/circadian parameters and PTSS. Participants (n = 120 adults; mean age 35.6 ± 14; 48 male) were assessed through the Trauma and Loss Spectrum Self Report (TALS-SR) for lifetime PTSS, the reduced version of the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ) for chronotype, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for self-reported sleep quality, and wrist actigraphy for sleep and circadian parameters. Eveningness, poor self-reported sleep quality, lower sleep efficiency (SE), lower interdaily stability (IS), and higher intradaily variability (IV) were correlated with higher TALS-SR scores. Regression analyses showed that IV, SE, and PSQI remained associated with TALS symptomatic domains after adjusting for potentially confounding factors (age and gender). Moderation analysis showed that only the PSQI remained significantly associated with TALS symptomatic domains; however, the interaction with chronotype was not significant. Targeting self-reported sleep disturbances and rest-activity rhythms fragmentation could mitigate PTSS. Although the effect of chronotype as a moderator of the associations between sleep/circadian parameters and PTSS was not significant, eveningness was associated with higher TALS scores, thus confirming the vulnerability of evening types to worse stress reactions.

Eating and sleeping are two vital physiological functions occupying a significant portion of our daily routines and influencing numerous preparatory behaviors