Chapter II
Review of related literature and studies
A. Related literature
In this chapter, it presents a literature review that is concerning the factor that determines
eating behavior and how university students are affected by their food choices and eating habits
in modern society. Nowadays, global consumers are more concerned about the quality of their
food. Numerous studies have shown that college student often has poor eating habits
(Despande, 2009). Internal, external, economic, environment and psychological factors
motivate or encourage people to eat certain foods and are intertwined with food habits.
Despande S. Et al. (2009), examined that poor eating habits are an important public health issue
that has a large health and economic implications.
“Children, with their fast-food diets, school runs and PlayStation lives, are vulnerable as ever
before. For the first time in history, they risk being outlived by their parents and developing the
illnesses of middle age whilst still young” (Purvis, 2005: 2).
The ‘Hungry for Success’ (2002) initiative was implemented in all schools in Scotland in 2003,
with an aim to improve school meals. As children “become more independent they are
increasingly responsible for making their own food choices as parental influence decreases”
(Wardley et al., 1997:75).
The objective of the initiative was to ensure that all pupils were encouraged to make informed
decisions when eating within school. Healthier food choices were readily available to all
children, therefore allowing children to choose healthier options. School menus were reviewed
in order to provide better nutrition and children were offered salads and free fruit was available
to all infants (Scottish Executive, 2005).
In addition to this initiative, ‘Towards a Healthy Weight Action Plan for Scotland’ (2006)
proposed to develop programmers to support healthy eating in the primary school and in
addition, introduced a ban on junk food in schools and in lunch boxes. This ensured that all
pupils did not have the opportunity to make poor choices and instead, pupils opted for healthier
foods (NHS,
Poor nutrition and obesity are among the most important health issues facing society today, not
only in terms of health, but also health care expenses (Goel, 2006; Rashad & Grossman, 2004).
There are a variety of predictors of obesity including genetics, physical activity, and food
consumption (Goel, 2006). There are other outcomes of food choice and nutrition that also have
an independent effect on health including some types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and
diabetes (Nicklas, Baranowski, Baranowski, Cullen, Rittenberry, & Olvera, 2001). For these
reasons, food selection is an important consumer behavior with many long-term consequences
to the individual in the form of health and longevity and to society in the form of health cost.
Se of food labels, another form of communication-only tool, does influence dietary habits, but in
a conditional manner. According to Kristal et al. (2001), individuals who use labels report
reductions in fat intake but not an increase in fruits and vegetables simply because one can read
nutritional facts of processed foods but not fruits and vegetables. When used as point-of-
purchase (POP) messages, labels have shown less effectiveness among students, especially
when competing with more attractive commercial messages in the university cafeteria (Mayer,
Dubbert, & Elder, 1989). POP interventions have been used in the past to promote a healthy
diet, but with mixed results (Buscher, Martin, & Crocker, 2001). POP interventions increased
yogurt, pretzel, and whole fruit sales but had no effect on fruit basket and vegetable basket
sales. According to the authors, effective POP displays emphasize budget friendliness,
sensory/taste, convenience, and energizing properties of food. Placement of POPs is also critical.
The researchers found that POP messages placed at the entrance of the foodservice facility were
more effective than keeping them near the healthy food items. POPs can also be used as
reminders to ensure sustainability of interventions (Maddux, 1993).
Successful attempts have been made to influence healthy eating when offered in the form of a
nutrition course (Matvienko, Lewis, & Schafer, 2001). But in many cases, awareness creation by
itself may not be an effective technique (Brown, Dresen, & Eggett, 2005; Schnoll & Zimmerman,
2001), especially while addressing the influence of efficacy to eat healthy. For example, a study
conducted by Schnoll & Zimmerman (2001) incorporated the self-regulation strategies of goal-
setting and self-monitoring in a nutrition course. Goal-setting by itself and in combination with
self-monitoring had a positive impact on self-efficacy to consume and consumption of dietary
fiber. In other campaigns, when promotion (that is newsletters and e-mails) was combined with
motivational interviews, the campaign seemed to have a positive impact on fruit and vegetable
consumption among college students (Richards, Kattelmann, & Ren, 2006). Additionally, while
reaching women, studies have shown the effectiveness of a counseling approach (Leslie & St.
Pierre, 1999).
B. Related studies
As reported studies by the World Health Organization (WHO) [8], the adult disease burden is
due to health risk behaviors that start during adolescence (e.g., unhealthy eating practices). For
example, most of the United States (US) population does not consume the recommended daily
amount of fruit and vegetables, nuts, and seeds. On the other hand, the consumption of added
sugars, processed meats, and trans fats is higher than the recommended daily intake [9]. It has
been shown that after the transition from adolescence to young adulthood, when independency
increases, young adults are continuously challenged to make healthful food choices [2,10].
Along with unhealthy eating behaviors, a new series of weight-related behavioral patterns
begins throughout this period, such as excessive alcohol consumption and a low level of physical
activity.
Some research has shown that the most important factors predicting food selection among
adults are: taste, cost, nutrition, convenience, pleasure, and weight control, in that order (Glanz,
Basil, Maibach, Goldberg, & Snyder 1998).
Many studies have shown that people often establish these tastes and habits while they are
relatively young (Birch, 1999). Evidence suggests early establishment of habits and preferences
occurs for a variety of behaviors including media use (Basil, 1990) and music listening (Holbrook
& Schindler, 1994), as well as food choice (Birch, 1999).
An especially important time of life for food choice is when people step out independently for
the first time and begin to make all of their own food decisions. For many people, this is the
transition to college life. The transition to college or university is a critical period for young
adults, who are often facing their first opportunity to make their own food decisions (Baker,
1991; Marquis, 2005) and this could have a negative impact on students’ eating behaviors
(Marquis, 2005; Rappoport, 2003).
Previous literature has extensively discussed factors that influence eating behaviors among
college students. However, application of a behavioral model such as the health belief model
(HBM) has received less attention. Only three studies were found that applied HBM in the
college eating context (Garcia & Mann, 2003; Von Ah, Ebert, Ngamvitroj, Park, & Kang, 2004;
Wdowik, Kendall, Harris, & Auld, 2001). These studies examined avoiding dieting, a combination
of eating and exercise, and diabetic students, respectively. The present study provides valuable
insights into how health beliefs impact eating behaviors for college students—a population at
the crucial stage of transitioning into independent nutritional practices.
Numerous studies have shown that college students often have poor eating habits. Students
tend to eat fewer fruits and vegetables on a daily basis and report high intake of high-fat, high-
calorie foods (Brevard & Ricketts, 1996; Driskell, Kim, & Goebel, 2005; Racette, Deusinger,
Strube, Highstein, & Deusinger, 2005). According to the American College Health Association
(2006), a 2004 study revealed that only 7.3% of students ate five or more servings of fruits and
vegetables daily. The transition to college life often worsens dietary habits among students
(Grace, 1997) which could contribute to weight problems especially during the first year of
college or university (Anderson et al., 2003) and continue during later years of life (Centers for
Disease Control, 1997; Racette et al., 2005).
Previous studies have shown a link between demographic and psychographic characteristics
with dietary behavior of college students. Driskell et al. (2005) revealed few differences among
lower and upper level students in terms of their dietary habits, suggesting that habits
established in the first year or two likely carry forward into later college years. However, where
a student lives seems to affect his or her dietary habits and diet-related health (Brevard &
Ricketts, 1996). Students living off-campus reported a higher percentage of energy from protein.
Similarly, serum triglyceride level and the ratio of total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein
were also higher among students living off-campus. The authors conclude that students living off
campus are choosing different foods than those living on campus.
Conceptual framework
Conceptual framework
Based on our findings a composite conceptual framework was proposed, in which
adolescent eating behavior is conceptualized as a function of the identified individual and
environmental influences (Figure 1). The framework emphasizes the interaction of factors
within and across these levels of influence. All of these factors may directly or indirectly
influence adolescents’ dietary behavior. In addition to the more traditional influencing
factors, the following culture-specific key factors were identified for our population:
perceived food safety, lack of self-control, financial autonomy, habit strength and changes
in socio-cultural environment. Furthermore, as acknowledged previously [13], our findings
indicated that the influence of these factors on behavior may differ according to socio-
economic status and setting. This multilevel, interactive framework is useful for
understanding and explaining the factors influencing dietary behavior in Ecuadorian
adolescents.
Chapter III
Research Methodology
This chapter contains research design, research locale, research respondents, research
instrument, data gathering procedure and statistical treatment of data.
Research design
This study performed through qualitative method design, since we are focusing on how
people being affected by unhealthy eating habits and why should the develop healthy
eating habits in our particular community.
Research locale
Our research study will be conducted around lawm tabawan community located in south
ubian tawi-tawi , our team will be separated for conducting the research on different
barangays in lawm tabawan.
Research respondents
More of our targeted respondents will a students and teen ager since they being foodie
and the used to eat outdoors, we targeted 15 Teenager/students, 10 food sellers and 5
adult in total of 30 respondents which seems to be an ideal sample size.
Research instruments
Since we conducted a qualitative research we prefer interview and survey. We chatted
down every important 15-20 questionS for the interview which satisfy our findings, some
of our member will taking a note and recording through phone recorder for us to make
sure to claim every words being delivered by our respondents.
Theoretical framework
Dietary behavior in young people is determined by the complex interplay of factors at both
individual and environmental level. To better understand these factors in Ecuadorian
adolescents, we used a theoretical framework to conceptualize and analyze the findings of
focus group discussions. To ensure the cultural appropriateness of this framework, the
cognitive variables from the ‘Attitude, Social influences and Self-efficacy’ ASE-model [15]
were nestled within the socio-cultural and physical context of adolescents’ environment, as
elaborated by the socio-ecological model [16]. The ASE-model poses that dietary behavior
is a function of the intention to perform the behavior that, in turn, can be explained
through 3 cognitive factors: attitudes, social influence (including subjective norms,
modeling and support) and self-efficacy. Additionally, barriers and lack of skills might limit
the possibility to put the intention into practice [17]. As adolescents’ dietary behavior is
strongly influenced by their environments [18], we complemented our framework with a
socio-ecological perspective. In this model, dietary behavior is viewed as the interaction
between, and interdependence of, factors within and across multiple levels of influence. In
other words, it highlights people’s interactions with their physical and socio-cultural
environments [16]. Both models have been used extensively to study dietary behaviors in
young people [19]–[21].