The Demographic Variation in Nutrition Knowledge and Relationship with Eating Attitudes among Chinese University Students

Wen-Jing Deng (), Ziyue Yi and John Chi-Kin Lee
Additional contact information
Wen-Jing Deng: Department of Science and Environmental Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Ziyue Yi: Department of Science and Environmental Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
John Chi-Kin Lee: Academy of Applied Policy Studies and Education Futures, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: There is a noticeable absence of health education among college students. This study aimed to evaluate the extent of general nutrition knowledge among Chinese university students and explore its association with eating attitudes. Data were collected from a group of 273 students in Spring of 2023, using a valid and reliable research instrument consisting of three sections: demographic variables, the General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire (GNKQ), and the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26). The results were analyzed using SPSS, with correlations and t -tests to examine the relationships between nutritional knowledge and dietary attitudes. Furthermore, the present study employed the random forest (RF) algorithm, a machine learning technique, utilizing the Mean Decrease Impurity (MDI) method to investigate the influence of various features on participants’ eating attitudes. The findings revealed that Chinese university students had an average accuracy of over 60% in their nutritional knowledge, but their understanding of the relationship between diet and disease still needs improvement. Moreover, male students had significantly lower nutritional knowledge than female students, and there was a positive correlation between nutritional knowledge and parents’ income. The study also found a significant correlation between the level of nutritional knowledge and eating attitudes. RF results indicated that the family income level exhibited the most substantial impact on the eating attitudes of the participants. The study highlights the need for nutrition education curriculum developers to focus more on improving students’ nutritional knowledge, with particular attention given to male students, low-income individuals, and those with an abnormal BMI.

Keywords: nutrition knowledge; machine learning; eating attitudes; university students; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/2/159/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/2/159/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:2:p:159-:d:1330262

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().