INVESTIGATING THE REGULAR FITNESS CENTER USERS’ KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTION ABOUT WHEY PROTEIN: AN APPROACH USING WORD ASSOCIATION

Introduction: Beyond health, aesthetics can be considered one of the main reasons for sports practice among the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro city. However, some people who choose gyms for practicing physical exercises suffer a negative pressure at the fitness centers because at these places the good shape stereotyped such a slim and fit body is valued. As a consequence, there is a trend of increasing the consumption of supplements and anabolic to speed up the good body shape. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the perception and knowledge of the regular fitness center users on whey protein, as well as the intake motives for the product. Methodology: Two qualitative techniques were used to explore consumer’s perception of whey protein: word association and open-ended questions. Two hundred people (50% female) who go to fitness centers took part in the study. They received the following instructions: ‘When you think of Whey Protein, what are the first four words, associations, thoughts or feelings that come to your mind?’ and ‘When you purchase Whey Protein, what are the four main factors that influence your decision?’. Likewise, it was investigated the reasons of consumption, who they follow advise for consuming whey protein, and hedonic aspects related to whey protein. Results: The word association resulted in 279 different mentioned terms, and the most cited was ‘Protein’, followed by Muscle’ and ‘Force’, which comprised the category named Target/muscle. It also could be observed a conscious ingestion of whey protein as 64% declared being advised by health professionals. Results about the four main reasons that influence purchase revealed 245 different terms mentioned by participants. The mention was higher for ‘nutritional characteristics’, ‘price’ and ‘brand’ compared to ‘flavor’. Conclusion: The specific population of the study, i.e. people who regularly go to fitness center showed a reasonable knowledge regarding the dietary supplementation taken. They associated whey protein directly to muscle mass gain. Word association showed to be a useful method to investigate consumer’s knowledge and perception on whey protein.