A Study on Nutritional Knowledge and Food Behaviors among Overweight Students in TARUC

Tan, Yi Wen (2018) A Study on Nutritional Knowledge and Food Behaviors among Overweight Students in TARUC. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship of nutritional knowledge and food behaviors in relation to overweight among the university student. And the objectives are the following: 1. To determine the prevalence of overweight among university college students in Tunku Abdul Rahman University College. 2. To determine the relationship between the nutritional knowledge and overweight. 3. To determine the relationship between the student food behaviors and their body weight status. A total of 240 participants were participated in this cross-sectional study using simple random sampling technique. Questionnaire was used in this study to collect data of the participants. The questionnaire is request information on sociodemographic and anthropometric information which included age, gender, height (cm), weight (kg), study background, family background, and follow by the questions related to study objectives. The questionnaire was divided to two parts as follows: dietary behavior and nutritional knowledge. The data were then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and tested by the Cronbach Alpha test to measure the reliability of the questionnaire, descriptive test for the means and standard deviation, and Pearson correlation test to indicate the correlation between the variables. The results indicated the mean BMI of the participants is 27.1kg with standard deviation 2.9. And also showed the significant correlation between nutritional knowledge, food behaviour and body weight status. The requirement for strategies and coordinated efforts such as educational campaign regarding healthy food behaviour can reduce prevalence of overweight and obesity in Malaysia. The food preferences and behavioral change after acquiring nutrition knowledge might be genetically different between boys and girls, but further studies are needed to clarify these points.