Knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding fast-food consumption among undergraduate students, Magway, Myanmar

Abstract

Non-communicable diseases are a result of unhealthy life styles, including eating behaviors. Many studies showed that consumption of fast food is related to obesity and many NCDs. Studies concerned with NCD risk factors are identified as one of the priority research areas in Myanmar. This study was conducted to: (1) assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice regarding fast food, and (2) identify the association between (i) socio-demographic characteristics and practice, (ii) knowledge and practice, and (iii) attitude and practice of fast food consumption among community health students. In this study, 157 undergraduate community health students were recruited via a convenience sampling method. The data were gathered via the telephone and analyzed with SPSS version 18 with the p-value set at <0.05. There were significant differences between age and practice (p=0.032), sex and practice (p=0.03), and knowledge and practice (p<0.001). However, there was no significant difference between attitude and practice (p=0.867). Being female (p=0.033, OR=2.13) and the average spending on food per month (p=0.02, OR=2.92, 7.37) were the positive predictors, and the level of knowledge (p=0.005, OR=0.33, 0.28) was a negative predictor of fast food consumption practice. These findings revealed that a high level of knowledge was associated with low intake of fast food among community health students, but attitude was not related to fast food consumption. Future studies of fast food should focus on all university students in a city or a region and use probability sampling in order to make the results more likely to reflect the entire population of university students. IMPLICATION OF THEMATIC PAPER : It provides an evidence base for implementing strategies in the University of Community Health to either prevent or reduce the quantity of fast food consumption among community health students.