Impact of Point of Sale Nutritional Information and Dietary and Exercise Habits of College Students in Missouri

David Ruggeri^1, and Rebecca Seguin²

¹Department of Business, Columbia College, 1001 Rogers Street, Columbia, MO 65216, USA

²Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, 412 Savage Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA

Cite this paper:
David Ruggeri and Rebecca Seguin. Impact of Point of Sale Nutritional Information and Dietary and Exercise Habits of College Students in Missouri. Journal of Food and Nutrition Research. 2016; 4(3):195-200. doi: 10.12691/jfnr-4-3-10

Abstract

Poor dietary and exercise habits can lead to many negative health outcomes later in life. The eating and exercise behaviors of college students are of particular importance as many life-long habits are formed during this period in their lives. This study examined the current eating and exercise habits of traditional college students at a small liberal arts college in Columbia, Missouri. Traditional day students (N=884) were e-mailed a survey to their college assigned e-mail address, with 96 students completing the survey. Those who received the survey link had access to all campus resources, such as the gymnasium, dorms, and dining halls. 55.21% of respondents indicated that their current level of physical activity was less now than when they were a senior in high school. Even though the dining hall displayed nutritional information for all entrees, 26.32% of the students indicated that they were aware that the nutritional information was posted, 23.16% of students indicated that no nutritional information was posted, and 50.53% stated that they didn’t know. Students who indicated that they were aware that the nutritional information was posted reported exercising on average 5.29 hours per week compared to 4.72 hours for those who reported no nutritional information was posted and 3.81 hours per week for those who reported they did not know. Students who were aware of the posted nutritional information also ate at fast food restaurants less often (2.68 times per week) than those who stated no information were posted (3.52 times per week) and those who did not know (4.38 times per week). Of the participants 25% reported that they are unaware of their daily-recommended caloric intake.

Keywords:
eating habits exercise habits point of sale nutritional information college students

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References:

[1]	Mokdad, A.H., Marks, J.S., Stroup, D.F., and Gerberding, J.L., Actual causes of death in the United States, 2000. Jama-Journal of the American Medical Association, 2004. 291(10): p. 1238-1245.
[2]	Withrow, D. and Alter, D.A., The economic burden of obesity worldwide: a systematic review of the direct costs of obesity. Obesity Reviews, 2011. 12(2): p. 131-141.
[3]	Deshpande, S., Basil, M.D., and Basil, D.A., Factors influencing healthy eating habits among college students: An application of the health belief model. Health Marketing Quarterly, 2009. 26(2): p. 20.
[4]	World Health Organization, Diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases. WHO Technical Report Series, 2003(916): p. i-x, 1-149.
[5]	Guilbert, J.J., The world health report 2002 - reducing risks, promoting healthy life. Education for health (Abingdon, England), 2003. 16(2): p. 230-230.
[6]	Sturm, R., The effects of obesity, smoking, and drinking on medical problems and costs. Health Affairs, 2002. 21(2): p. 245-253.
[7]	Wang, Y.C., McPherson, K., Marsh, T., Gortmaker, S.L., and Brown, M., Health and economic burden of the projected obesity trends in the USA and the UK. The Lancet, 2011. 378(9793): p. 11.
[8]	Ogden, C.L., Carroll, M.D., Kit, B.K., and Flegal, K.M., Prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the United States, 2011-2012. Jama-Journal of the American Medical Association, 2014. 311(8): p. 806-814.
[9]	World Health Organization, Obesity and overweight. Fact Sheet No. 311. 2015.
[10]	Levitsky, D.A., Halbmaier, C.A., and Mrdjenovic, G., The freshman weight gain: a model for the study of the epidemic of obesity. International Journal of Obesity, 2004. 28(11): p. 1435-1442.
[11]	Fedewa, M.V., Das, B.M., Evans, E.M., and Dishman, R.K., Change in Weight and Adiposity in College Students A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2014. 47(5): p. 641-652.
[12]	Small, M., Bailey-Davis, L., Morgan, N., and Maggs, J., Changes in Eating and Physical Activity Behaviors Across Seven Semesters of College: Living On or Off Campus Matters. Health Education & Behavior, 2013. 40(4): p. 435-441.
[13]	Wane, S., van Uffelen, J.G.Z., and Brown, W., Determinants of Weight Gain in Young Women: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Womens Health, 2010. 19(7): p. 1327-1340.
[14]	Freedman, M.R., Gender, residence and ethnicity affect freshman BMI and dietary habits. American Journal of Health Behavior, 2010. 34(5): p. 513-524.
[15]	Driskell, J.A., Kim, Y.-N., and Goebel, K.J., Few Differences Found in the Typical Eating and Physical Activity Habits of Lower-Level and Upperlevel University Students. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2005. 105(5): p. 4.
[16]	Grace, T.W., Health problems of college students. Journal of American College Health, 1997. 45(6): p. 8.
[17]	Mokdad, A.H., Serdula, M.K., Dietz, W.H., Bowman, B.A., Marks, J.S., and Koplan, J.P., The spread of the obesity epidemic in the United States, 1991-1998. Jama-Journal of the American Medical Association, 1999. 282(16): p. 1519-1522.
[18]	Racette, S.B., Deusinger, S.S., Strube, M.J., Highstein, G.R., and Deusinger, R.H., Weight changes, exercise, and dietary patterns during freshman and sophomre years of college. Journal of American College Health, 2005. 53(6): p. 7.
[19]	Glanz, K., Basil, M., Maibach, E., Goldberg, J., and Snyder, D., Why Americans eat what they do: Taste, nutrition, cost, convenience, and weight control concerns as influences on food consumption. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 1998. 98(10): p. 9.
[20]	Dowda, M., Ainsworth, B.E., Addy, C.L., Saunders, R., and Riner, W., Correlates of physical activity among US young adults, 18 to 30 years of age, from NHANES III. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 2003. 26(1): p. 15-23.
[21]	Huang, T.T.K., Harris, K.J., Lee, R.E., Nazir, N., Born, W., and Kaur, H., Assessing overweight, obesity, diet, and physical activity in college students. Journal of American College Health, 2003. 52(2): p. 83-86.
[22]	Bray, S.R. and Born, H.A., Transition to university and vigorous physical activity: Implications for health and psychological well-being. Journal of American College Health, 2004. 52(4): p. 181-188.
[23]	Adams, T. and Rini, A., Predicting 1-year change in body mass index among college students. Journal of American College Health, 2007. 55(6): p. 361-365.
[24]	Hoffman, D.J., Policastro, P., Quick, V., and Lee, S.-K., Changes in body weight and fat mass of men and women in the first year of college: A study of the "Freshman 15". Journal of American College Health, 2006. 55(1): p. 41-45.
[25]	Racette, S.B., Deusinger, S.S., Strube, M.J., Highstein, G.R., and Deusinger, R.H., Weight changes, exercise, and dietary patterns during freshman and sophomore years of college. Journal of American College Health, 2005. 53(6): p. 245-251.
[26]	Gruber, K.J., Social support for exercise and dietary habits among college students. Adolescence, 2008. 43(171): p. 20.
[27]	Kandiah, J., Yake, M., Jones, J., and Meyer, M., Stress influences appetite and comfort food preferences in college women. Nutrition Research, 2006. 26(3): p. 118-123.
[28]	Liu, C., Xie, B., Chou, C.-P., Koprowski, C., Zhou, D., Palmer, P., Sun, P., Guo, Q., Duan, L., Sun, X., and Johnson, C.A., Perceived stress, depression and food consumption frequency in the college students of China seven cities. Physiology & Behavior, 2007. 92(4): p. 748-754.
[29]	Mikolajczyk, R.T., El Ansari, W., and Maxwell, A.E., Food consumption frequency and perceived stress and depressive symptoms among students in three European countries. Nutrition Journal, 2009. 8.
[30]	Papier, K., Ahmed, F., Lee, P., and Wiseman, J., Stress and dietary behaviour among first-year university students in Australia: Sex differences. Nutrition, 2015. 31(2): p. 324-330.
[31]	Girz, L., Polivy, J., Provencher, V., Wintre, M.G., Pratt, M.W., Pancer, S.M., Birnie-Lefcovitch, S., and Adams, G.R., The four undergraduate years. Changes in weight, eating attitudes, and depression. Appetite, 2013. 69: p. 145-150.
[32]	Saules, K.K., Collings, A.S., Hoodin, F., Angelella, N.E., Alschuler, K., Ivezaj, V., Saunders-Scott, D., and Wiedemann, A.A., The contributions of weight problem perception, BMI, gender, mood, and smoking status to binge eating among college students. Eating Behaviors, 2009. 10(1): p. 1-9.
[33]	Kelly-Weeder, S., Phillips, K., Leonard, K., and Veroneau, M., Binge eating and weight loss behaviors of overweight and obese college students. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 2014. 26(8): p. 445-451.
[34]	Han, S. and Pistole, M.C., College student-binge eating: Insecure attachment and emotion regulation. Journal of College Student Development, 2014. 55(1): p. 16-29.
[35]	Sulkowski, M.L., Dempsey, J., and Dempsey, A.G., Effects of stress and coping on binge eating in female college students. Eating Behaviors, 2011. 12(3): p. 188-191.
[36]	Driskell, J.A., Schake, M.C., and Detter, H.A., Using nutritional labeling as a potential tool for changing eating habits of university dining hall patrons. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2008. 108(12): p. 6.
[37]	Conklin, M.T., Cranage, D.A., and Lambert, C.U., College students' use of point of selection nutrition information. Topics in Clinical Nutrition, 2005. 20(2): p. 12.
[38]	Hoefkens, C., Lachat, C., Kolsteren, P., Van Camp, J., and Verbeke, W., Posting point-of-purchase nutrition information in university canteens does not influence meal choice and nutrient intake. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2011. 94(2): p. 4.
[39]	Freedman, M.R., Point-of-selection nutritional information influences choice of portion size in an all-you-can-eat university dining hall. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 2011. 14(1): p. 13.
[40]	Graham, D.J. and Laska, M.N., Nutrition label use partially mediates the relationship between attitude toward healthy eating and overall dietary quality among college students. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2012. 112(3): p. 5.
[41]	World Health Organization, Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health. 2010.
[42]	Nelson, D., Holtzman, D., Bolen, J., Stanwyck, C., and Mack, K., Reliability and validity of measures from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Sozial- und Praventivmedizin, 2001. Suppl(1): p. 40.
[43]	Brener, N.D., Billy, J.O.G., and Grady, W.R., Assessment of factors affecting the validity of self-reprted health-risk behavior among adolescents: Evidence from the scientific literature. Journal of Adolescent Health, 2003. 33(6): p. 12.
[44]	Richardson, M.T., Leon, A.S., Jacobs, D.R.J., Ainsworth, B.E., and Serfass, R., Comprehensive evaluation of the Minnesota leisure time physical activity questionnaire. journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 1994. 47(3): p. 11.
[45]	Ainsworth, B., Jacobs, D.J., and Leon, A., Validity and reliability of self-reported physical activity status: The Lipid Research Clinics questionnaire. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 1993. 25(1): p. 7.
[46]	Siconolfi, S.F., Lasater, T.M., Snow, R.C.K., and Carleton, R.A., Self-reported physical activity compared with maximal oxygen uptake. American Journal of Epidemiology, 1985. 122(1): p. 5.
[47]	Wolf, A.M., Hunter, D.J., Colditz, G.A., Manson, J.E., Stampfer, M.J., Corsano, K.A., Rosner, B., Kriska, A., and Willett, W.C., Reproducibility and validity of a self-administered physical activity questionnaire. International Journal of Epidemiology, 1994. 23(5): p. 10.
[48]	Stewart, A.L., The reliability and validity of self-reported weight and height. Journal of Chronic Diseases, 1982. 35(4): p. 295-309.
[49]	Huber, L.R.B., Validity of self-reported height and weight in women of reproductive age. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 2007. 11(2): p. 137-144.
[50]	Spencer, E.A., Appleby, P.N., Davey, G.K., and Key, T.J., Validity of self-reported height and weight in 4808 EPIC-Oxford participants. Public Health Nutrition, 2002. 5(4): p. 561-565.
[51]	Stewart, A.L., The reliability and validity of self-reported weight and height. Journal of Chronic Diseases, 1982. 35(4): p. 15.
[52]	Brunner Huber, L.R., Validity of self-reported height and weight in women of reproductive age. Maternal Child and Health Journal, 2007. 11(2): p. 8.
[53]	Spencer, E.A., Appleby, P.N., Davey, G.K., and Key, T.J., Validity of self-reported height and weight in 4808 EPIC-Oxford participants. Public Health Nutrition, 2002. 5(4): p. 5.
[54]	Brener, N.D., McManus, T., Galuska, D.A., Lowry, R., and Wechsler, H., Reliability and validity of self-reported height and weight among high school students. Journal of Adolescent Health, 2003. 32(4): p. 7.
[55]	Freedman, M.R. and Connors, R., Point-of-purchase nutrition information influences food-purchasing behaviors of college students: A pilot study. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2011. 111(5): p. 5.