A study of Nutrition knowledge, attitudes and food habits of college students

Abstract

This study designed for understanding the nutrition knowledge, attitude and food habits of college's students. The target population consisted entirely of college student of Payam Nour Universities. Standard questionnaire (K Parmenter and J Wardle 1999) which was developed to measure subject's nutrition knowledge, attitude and food habits distributed among 415 students randomly. After translation, questionnaires were evaluated by professor's faculty of physical education and sport sciences. The reliability analysis yielded Cronbach Alpha values of 0.78 for the knowledge and 0.74 for the attitude scales. The collected data was analyzed by t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient (P<0.05). Results show that nutrition knowledge score in physical education student were highest and in business management student were lowest. ANOVA show that there were no significant differences among nutrition knowledge of all majors and between genders. Also nutrition attitude scores for physical education were highest and for psychology were lowest; but difference between nutrition attitudes among all majors was not significant. There were significant positive correlations between nutrition knowledge and attitude; and between nutrition attitude and food habits of male and females students.According to our results, we suggest that student should more attention to nutrition. Also study in college as a golden period for learning, can affect on promote nutrition knowledge, attitude and practices of students, therefore the importance of nutrition in various college curriculums and improvement of the learning environment, related to nutrition need to be emphasized on college campuses.

Full text

World Applied Sciences Journal 15 (7): 1012-1017, 2011
ISSN 1818-4952
© IDOSI Publications, 2011
Corresponding Author: Ali Barzegari, Physical Education Department, Payame noor University, 19395-4697 Tehran, Iran.
1012
A Study of Nutrition Knowledge, Attitudes and Food Habits of College Students
Ali Barzegari, Mohsen Ebrahimi, Mohammad Azizi and Kazem Ranjbar
12 3 4
Physical Education Department, Payame Noor University, 19395-4697 Tehran, Iran
1
Young Researchers Club, Ayatollah Amoli Branch, Islamic Azad University, Amol, Iran
2
Department of exercise physiology, University of Razi, Kermanshah, Iran
3
Institute of Higher Education, Allameh Mohaddes Noori, Iran
4
Abstract: This study designed for understanding the nutrition knowledge, attitude and food habits of college’s
students. The target population consisted entirely of college student of Payam Nour Universities. Standard
questionnaire (K Parmenter and J Wardle 1999) which was developed to measure subject’s nutrition knowledge,
attitude and food habits distributed among 415 students randomly. After translation, questionnaires were
evaluated by professor’s faculty of physical education and sport sciences. The reliability analysis yielded
Cronbach Alpha values of 0.78 for the knowledge and 0.74 for the attitude scales. The collected data was
analyzed by t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient (P<0.05). Results show that nutrition
knowledge score in physical education student were highest and in business management student were lowest.
ANOVA show that there were no significant differences among nutrition knowledge of all majors and between
genders. Also nutrition attitude scores for physical education were highest and for psychology were lowest;
but difference between nutrition attitudes among all majors was not significant. There were significant positive
correlations between nutrition knowledge and attitude; and between nutrition attitude and food habits of male
and females students.According to our results, we suggest that student should more attention to nutrition.
Also study in college as a golden period for learning, can affect on promote nutrition knowledge, attitude and
practices of students, therefore the importance of nutrition in various college curriculums and improvement of
the learning environment, related to nutrition need to be emphasized on college campuses.
Key words: Nutrition knowledge
Attitudes Food habits
INTRODUCTION Given that, one of the main goals of universities is to
The importance of proper nutrition as one of the enhancing the nutrition attitudes, knowledge and
important aspects of lifestyle were emphasized in the practices of students have high importance, because
recent years and the trend toward healthier diets has this subsequently will lead to more food-conscious
increased [1, 2]. Evidences of Epidemiology indicate that society and more healthy people. Also, students are
changes in lifestyle in recent years increased incidence more likely to change positively; therefore, nutritional
of major diseases (such as: cardiovascular disease, education to enhance their knowledge can be helpful for
cancer, osteoporosis, high blood pressure and obesity), the community.
change in nutrition habits can be noted as an important On the other hand, some researches have shown that
change. Nutrition education as one of the important most students are not familiar with healthy foods needed
practical aspects of nutrition knowledge, play an for their body in different conditions [4, 5] and need to
important role in raising public awareness and ultimately have nutrition education programs [6]. Ruka’s research
health of society [3]. showed that the majority of students (83.6%) eat the three
The main goal of nutrition plans is obtaining the meals of the day regularly and no difference was found
appropriate and necessary nutrition to remain healthy, between men and women [7]. Although Ruka showed
to be physically prepared and to lead a healthy life. For 85.6% of students are familiar with concepts of balance
this reason to promote the level of society health, the between the nutrients in foods, but only 7% of them
knowledge and attitudes of its people must be considered. use it in their diet, yet 51% of students showed a
broaden the knowledge of people of society, so

World Appl. Sci. J., 15 (7): 1012-1017, 2011
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tendency towards learning healthy diet [7]. O’Dea showed in Golestan province were collected. Then, according to
that 85% of men and 87% of women, who are overweight, Odinsky table, the acceptable number of samples was
decide to go on a diet to lose weight; also13% of men and determined and 415 questionnaires were distributed,
20% of women refuse to eat breakfast. He also reported filled out by students and collected.
that the students don’t have the necessary information After the translation of the standard questionnaire
and training about weight control, nutrition needs and (K Parmenter and J Wardle 1999) [14-17], some questions
diets [8]. On the other hand, Gates et al. (1998) showed were modified according to food and nutrition culture,
that students with normal weight have more healthy diet consulting some experts to obtain validity and the alpha
and better points in nutrition knowledge and attitudes Cronbach method was used to obtain reliability. The
compared with the other [9]. reliability analysis yielded Cronbach Alpha values of 0.78
While according to Michell et al. [10], there is not a for the knowledge test and 0.74 for the attitude scale. An
significant difference between knowledge and attitude institutional ethics review board at University of Guilan-
points among overweight and normal weight women. In Iran approved this study.
normal weight women, body mass index and body fat For pilot research, questionnaire was distributed to
percentage were related with nutrition attitude [10]. 31 students and necessary modifications were done.
Ahvaz University Research results showed that The Questionnaire consisted of five parts and first part is
students need to learn proper nutrition and there is an about some personal information about students and their
obvious decline in their sports nutrition quality and in this body composition. The second part contains questions
area the students of nutrition science and physical that measures students’ awareness about the division of
education can educate them. [11]. Kargarfard and food groups and their ingredients.The third part include
colleagues also reported that subjects only answer to some questions about student’s attitudes toward
50.9 % of the questions correctly [12]. Cupisti and nutrition and related diseases. The forth part poses some
colleagues [13] by comparing the nutrition habits and questions about choosing the foods and the last part
nutrition knowledge of female students in both physical collects student’s recommendations.
education and non-physical education, found that
consumption of carbohydrate in physical education Statistical Analysis: Means, standard deviation and
students was more than non-physical education students percents were calculated for the scores from the nutrition
and consumption of fat in non- physical education knowledge, attitude and food habits sections. Pearson's
students was more. Physical education students correlation coefficient were used to assess the correlation
consumed large amounts of fiber, iron and vitamin, but between nutrition knowledge, attitude and food habits of
consumption of iron and calcium in both groups was less college athletes; and analysis of variations (ANOVA) to
than required daily amounts [13]. evaluate the nutrition knowledge and attitude between
Unfortunately in our country Iran, there are not majors and independent t-test for comparing the
adequate researches about students’ nutrition and nutrition knowledge and attitude between males and
sufficient information is not available. So, the objective of females. Statistical results were considered to be
current research is to achieve better understanding of significant at p
0.05.
nutrition knowledge, attitude, nutrition diets, body
composition of students and provide solutions that Findings: Mean and standard deviation of height,
enhance and improve awareness and knowledge of weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) of subjects are in
students to choose healthy and appropriate foods in Tables 1&2. The results showed that knowledge
order to promote of health among male and female level of Physical Education is highest and Business
students. Therefore the purpose of this study was to Administration is the lowest (Figure 1). One-way ANOVA
evaluate nutrition knowledge, attitude and food habits of show that, there is not a significant difference in the
college students. knowledge level between students of different majors (p
Method and Subjects: The target population of this was higher than that of female subjects. Attitude level of
research consists of all Payame Noor students physical education with the grade 61 out of 100 is the
(male & female) of Golistan province. First, the number of highest and psychology with the grade 54.68 out of 100 is
centers and units of Payam e Noor University, branches the lowest (Figure 2). One-way ANOVA Also showed that
of Golestan and the number of enrolled students at the there is not a significant difference in nutritional attitude
separation of their study courses that located in Gorgan level between other majors (F= 0.958; p< 0.444).
< 0.35; F= 1.118). Also knowledge level of male subjects

World Appl. Sci. J., 15 (7): 1012-1017, 2011
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Fig. 1: Nutrition knowledge percentage of college students
Fig. 2: Nutrition attitudes percentage of college students.
Table 1: Anthropometric characteristics of subject
Gender height weight BMI index
Male 176.04±7.15 70.19±10.2 22.61±2.9
Female 162.05±6.22 57.35± 8.68 21.9±2.1
Table 2: Body mass index of Students
Males Females
---------------------------- ---------------------------
Number Percentage Number Percentage
Lean (less than 20 21 15.6 63 22.5
Normal weight (20-25) 84 62.2 170 60.7
Overweight ( 25-30) 19 14.1 25 8.9
Obese (More than 30) 3 2.2 5 1.8
Total 127 94.1 263 93.9
No reply 8 5.9 17 6.1
Total 135 0 280 100
Results concerning diet also showed that 41.8% of
subjects eat fish once or twice a month and only 12.2% of
subjects eat fish 6-9 times a month. In addition, 75.6% of
subjects eat breakfast every day and only 3% of subjects
reported that they do not eat breakfast at all. Also 62.1%
of the subjects eat fruit every day; while the 6.8% eat fruit
only once or twice a week. Only 2% of the subjects said
yes to the question of “Do you have any nutrition
license?”
Moreover, results showed that there was a positive
and significant correlation between knowledge level and
attitude level of both genders. Also there was a positive
and significant correlation between diet and attitude
of both female and male students. In response to last

World Appl. Sci. J., 15 (7): 1012-1017, 2011
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question (answer back), "Factors of low nutritional Some pervious researches have shown that students
information", 62.7 % of the subjects have noted the lack
of information as the main causes for low nutritional
awareness. (Table 3). Table 4 also shows how to increase
nutrition knowledge as the perspective of students.
DISCUSSION
According to World Health Organization (WHO)
definition from obesity, BMI above 30 is considered
border of the obesity [18]. This definition is based on a
research on Caucasian race. But the Asians in comparison
with Caucasians have more fat and less BMI [19]. The
results of this research showed that Golestan province
Payam e Noor University student’s BMI mean is in normal
condition and obesity spread is low (2.2%) but spread of
overweight is high (14.1%). Amamoto and his colleagues’
(2004) showed that the overweight among Japanese
students was 5.8% and obesity was 0% [20]. Also in
Samakaki and his colleagues research on Chinese
students, overweight spread was 2.5% and obesity spread
was 0.4% [21]. But in USA spread of obesity or
overweight (BMI = 25) was 35% [22]. However,
overweight spread in this research is higher than that of
Japanese and Chinese students but not higher than of
American students.
Table 3: Main cause of low nutritional awareness
Factors Frequency Percent
1 Lack of information 143 62.7
2 Carelessness to nutrition 27 11.8
3 Not interest 3 1.3
4 Lack of time 17 7.5
5 culture 9 2.6
6 Family 3 1.3
7 Financial 2 0.9
8 Lack of nutrition course 17 7.5
9 Education 6 2.7
10 Fast food 1 0.4
11 Lack of nutrition congress 3 1.3
Total 229 100
Table 4: Survey results concerning the strategies to increase the nutrition
knowledge of students
Priority Strategy
First Priority Distribution of brochures containing nutrition
information
Second Priority Through Media such as TV
Third Priority Trough students periodicals
Forth Priority Making the nutrition courses compulsory
Fifth Priority Nutrition training through holding
workshops and seminars
Sixth Priority Through media such as newspapers
Seventh Priority Students in universities Establishment
of nutrition councils
Eighth Priority Designing a nutrition website on university scale
are slightly aware of nutrition issues and their knowledge
and attitude are average [21]. In this research, the average
knowledge of male students was 57.28% and that of
female students was 56.71% which this shows that the
students have average nutrition knowledge and this
replicates pervious research [23]. It’s been observed in
this research that the nutrition knowledge of
physical education students is the highest among
majors. (60.95% of total scors).This is consistent with
pervious researches which showed that nutrition
knowledge is related with the field of study [24, 25]. With
regard to the fact that nutrition, physiology and exercise
science are the subjects of physical education courses, it
can be said that reason of increase in the nutrition
knowledge of these students in comparison to other
students is the passing of such courses. Georgia and
colleagues (1993) stated that the nutritional knowledge
and attitude are not correlated with gender [25]. In the
present research also the results show that there is not
significant difference between knowledge and attitude of
male and females. And this is in contrast with previous
results that reported the female students achieved better
scores than male students on nutritional knowledge and
attitude [24, 26, 27]. They expressed, females note to their
nutrition and health issues rather than males and it can be
the reason for females’ greater knowledge and attitudes
than males. But our results do not confirm this point.
On the other hand, Sakamaky’s researches showed
that most students eat three meals regularly [21] while in
research conducted in Japan only a few students eat three
meals regularly [28]. In the current research 69.6% of
males and 73.6% of females eat breakfast every day. This
is consistent with Youching and his colleagues’
researches which reported that 81% of subjects agree or
completely agree with the necessity of eating breakfast
[27]. The previous researches have shown that nutrition
knowledge is positively and significantly correlated with
attitude [21, 29]. In this current research there is a positive
and significant correlation between attitude and
knowledge of male students (p= 0/000, r= 0.484) and
female students (p= 0.000, r= 0.401). This has also been
reported in previous research [26, 30, 29, 31]. In this
research, there is a positive and significant correlation
between knowledge and attitude of students towards
nutrition. Also there is a positive and significant
correlation between attitude and the proper food habits.
This finding is consistent with Wong and his colleagues.
[27]. Kankl and his colleagues (1999) and Bidan and his
colleagues (2008) showed that the education leads to

World Appl. Sci. J., 15 (7): 1012-1017, 2011
1016
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