College Students’ Food Nutrition Labeling K-A-P Survey And Analysis Of The Influencing Factors

Objective By learning of college students’ knowledge, attitude and related behaviors(Knowledge-Attitude-Practice, KAP) towards food nutrition labeling and analysis of itsinfluencing factors of their usage, in order to provide a scientific basis for universaleducation on food labels and guide them to choose food reasonably. What’s more, it isalso can provide valuable information to refine and revise the relevant provisions ofChina’s food nutrition labeling.Methods Take a random cluster sampling method,2,000samples are surveyed in theresearch. They are students from Jinan University, South China Normal University andSouthern Medical University which all located in Guangzhou. Apply self-designedquestionnaires "Survey of college students’ knowledge, attitude and usage towards foodnutrition labeling". Use descriptive statistical analysis,2test and non-conditionallogistic regression analysis.Results1. College students’ average score of nutritional knowledge which related to foodnutrition labeling is13.1±2.9, and the passing rate is53.1%. The girls’ nutritionalknowledge score is significantly higher than that of the boys (P<0.05); the mainlandstudents’ nutritional knowledge score is significantly higher than that of thenon-mainland students (P<0.05); Medical students’ nutrition knowledge score is thehighest, followed by are the science and engineering students and the liberal arts students,the lowest is the art students (P<0.05); The students whose family per capita monthlyincome between1500~2500Yuan get the highest score. Looking through into thecontents of the nutritional knowledge, the college students’ awareness rates about foodnutrients, carbohydrate, protein, fat, dietary fiber, cholesterol function, high energy intakecould easily lead to obesity and cardiovascular disease, rickets is related to calciumdeficiency, hypertension is relevant to too much salt intake, which are all more than50%. However, their awareness rates of carbohydrates have the role of liver detoxification,animal brain with the highest cholesterol, high-energy intake could easily lead to coloncancer, RNI is the abbreviation of the recommended nutrient intake are quite low and allnot exceed16%. And their awareness of the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents"is only29.3%. The main sources of college students’ nutritional knowledge are books,newspapers or magazines (75.8%) and network (60.3%), followed by are televisionbroadcasting (54.9%), school classrooms (50.2%) and food nutrition labeling (43.6%),next are families (38.8%), students (26.9%) and training centers (7.7%) and others (1.9%).The sources of the nutritional knowledge are obviously different between genders, origins,professions and family per capita monthly incomes.2. College Students’ awareness rate of food nutrition labeling is52.6%, the mainlandstudents’ awareness rate is higher than that of the non-mainland students, and the medicalstudents’ awareness rate is higher than other professional students (P<0.05); the correctanswers rate of all the contents of the food nutrition labeling is29.4%. The awarenessrate of nutrient reference values is48.5%, and the medical students’ awareness rate ishigher than other professional students (P<0.05). College students’ understanding ofnutrition claims on some instant noodles goes like this "calcium contributes to healthybones and teeth", which is significantly correlated to their nutritional knowledge.Thenutritional knowledge is negatively correlated with the view of that the instant noodles isrich in calcium and considering buy it, and positive correlated with the understandingsuch as "still need to refer to other nutrients","instant noodles is rich in fat and sodium",it’s better not to eat and " false information ".3.87.0%of students think that nutrition labeling is necessary, and the girls aresignificantly more than the boys, the mainland students are significantly more than thenon-mainland students (P<0.05).63.4%of the students indicate that they trust in the foodnutrition labeling contents, the medical students is the highest, followed by are the liberalarts students and science and engineering students, the lowest is the art students (P<0.05).Single factor non-conditional logistic regression analysis showed that the necessity ofnutrition labeling and their trust in it are positively correlated with their nutritionknowledge score. 4. The ratio of frequently use of nutrition labeling is only37.8%, in which74.7%want toknow the nutritional content of food to determine whether the food is beneficial to thehealth,60.0%in order to obtain food nutrition knowledge,69.1%hope to see whether itcontains the patient taboo composition in order to reduce predisposing factors of diseases,32.2%use food nutrition labeling guidance to lose weight or control weight. Collegestudents pay the highest attention to the nutrition information of rich in dietary fiber(61.1%) on the nutrition labeling of pre-packaged foods, followed by are high calcium(59.3%) and high protein (51.9%), the lowest is full-fat (15.7%). According to collegeStudents’ genders, origins, professions and family per capita monthly incomes, theirpurpose of using the nutrition labeling and their attentions to the nutrition information areboth significant different(P<0.05).43.4%of the students believe that food nutritionlabeling is influential on their future meal options;43.5%of the students say the effect islittle, and they will still lay taste and food brands in the first place when purchasepre-packaged food;13.1%of the students think it have no effect. Multivariatenon-conditional logistic regression analysis showed that there are four importantprotective factors such as the high nutrition knowledge score, knowing the nutritionlabeling, positive attitude and trusting of nutrition labeling which all could affect collegestudents’ use of it.Conclusion1. College students know some of the nutrition knowledge about food nutrition labeling,but not comprehensive. The main sources from which they acquire the nutritionknowledge are books, newspapers, magazines and networks. Students of differentgenders, origins, professions and family incomes have significantly different in score,awareness rate and sources of nutrition knowledge. So popularize the knowledge of foodnutrition labeling to college students is necessary, and the way and content ofpopularizing should be diversified and personalized based on different characteristics,genders, origins, professions.2. Some college students know the name of food nutrition labeling, but few reallyunderstand the contents of it. One important factor which affects their understanding of food nutrition labeling is nutrition knowledge.3. Most college students trust food nutrition labeling and consider it is necessary to markit on pre-packaged foods, but the ratio of who often use it is low. There are a considerablenumber of students think that food nutrition labeling has little effect on the future dietarychoices, the taste and brands is primary factor. The attitudes and usage behavior is notdirectly proportional.4. Students who have better perception and attitudes towards nutrition labeling and higherfrequency of using it get higher score in nutrition knowledge. High nutrition knowledgescore, knowing the nutrition labeling, positive attitude and trust nutrition labels areprotective factors of affecting college students to use food nutrition labeling.5. Students of different genders, origins, professions and family incomes have differentcognition, attitude and usage of food nutrition labeling. The result suggests that theproject of popularizing the food nutrition labeling and guiding students to makereasonable food choices and must based on the situation of each student.