A Multicenter Study Evaluating the Stages of Change in Food Consumption with Warning Labels among Chilean University Students

Abstract

Objective. To analyze the stage of change in food consumption with warning labels among Chilean university students. Materials and Methods. Cross-sectional study which applied surveys in universities from all over the country. Study included 4807 participants of 18 to 40 years of both sexes who were asked about the level of knowledge of the new food law and food consumption with warning signals, including questions regarding their willingness to behavior change according to Prochaska’s transtheoretical model. To compare continuous variables, Student’s t-test was used in the statistical package SPSS 22.0, and p <0.05 was considered a significant difference. Results. Of the total number of respondents, 99.3% of the students indicated that they know about the food law, classifying foods with signals in the precontemplation stage. Compared by sex, we observed that women give greater importance to behavior change in all of foods (p <0.001). Underweight students give less importance to change in unhealthy foods, while obesity students give more importance but do not show more confidence in behavior change (p <0.05). Conclusion. The university students show a low importance and confidence to make behavior change, aspects associated with sex and nutritional status. It is necessary to strengthen nutritional food education and not just talk about structural measures.

Effect of a Single Nutritional Intervention Previous to a Critical Period of Fat Gain in University Students with Overweight and Obesity: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…A study that confirms the aforementioned found that despite university student knowing the importance of warning labels on food consumption, they showed strong pre-contemplative stages and resistance before changing their consumption habits [ 29 ]. These results clearly show the high degree of rooted eating habits in this population, but in particular, in people with overweightness or obesity [ 30 ].…”

“…Therefore, it is recommendable that critical periods should be taken into account in the public health system as a potential hazard to populations health, because the sum of short critical periods during a year could affect people’s health in the future. Thus, two points are important to highlight: The first is that intervention in overweight/obese university students focusing on acquiring positive eating habits and lifestyles should be prioritized [ 29 , 34 , 42 ]. The second is that the current way to face a critical period by the Chilean public health system neither guarantees nor promotes modification on eating and physical activity behavior.…”

The impact of front-of-the-packaging nutrition labelling warnings on consumer habits: a scoping review exploring the case of the Chilean Food Law

“…Two studies evaluated the consumers' behaviour change stage during the first phase of the CFL implementation (Agúero et al. , 2020a, b).…”

Trends in Eating Habits and Body Weight Status, Perception Patterns and Management Practices among First-Year Students of Kaunas (Lithuania) Universities, 2000–2017

“…Females consumed more fruits and vegetables and followed a vegetarian pattern more often than male students. Female students were more concerned about a healthy diet and read food labels more often than male students [ 17 , 41 ]. Males preferred a convenience pattern [ 15 ], meat [ 15 , 16 ] and processed meat [ 40 ], and take-away and fast foods [ 16 , 40 ] more often than females.…”