Nutrition and Diet Research Proposal

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The college student’s nutrition and diet practices are affected by various factors, which is the problem we are trying to ascertain in this study. The participants of this study are 121 students of ages between 18-24, both male and female, who will be identified after receiving an email. The methods of study will be after feeling a questionnaire that will be available and enabled by a survey monkey. Unfortunately, the method of study is liable to various biases since the survey monkey requires that one can access the internet, which might be an issue for some students, and offers no guarantee that all participants will be students.

The study will examine the Nutrition and Diets for College Students in the United States. Increased cases of obesity and overweight have been reported and observed mainly among adolescents and young adults. The most recent data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System confirmed that a greater percentage of the 18-24-year-olds are obese and overweight. The life of college students is characterized by tremendous changes; the now young adults are no longer under the strict care of their parents or guardians, and they have to make responsible choices that affect their day-to-day lives, and nutrition is a core component. Studies report that most college students engage in risky health behaviors, which include unhealthy eating habits that get worse as the college years’ progress. College students need to develop healthy eating habits that will translate to better health and attainment of optimal body function.

The central purpose of this study is to critically examine the diets and the nutrition that college students have. Reviewed studies have demonstrated that there is a need to examine the nutritional requirements of college students, their eating habits, knowledge of diet and nutrition, healthy behaviors, management of their weight as well education on diet and nutrition. Based on the discussion, the following hypotheses were proposed.

H1: The importance of eating healthy will be positively influenced by individual social demographics, food-environ perceptions, and the objective food environment.

H2: Moderators also positively influence the dietary outcome in students.

H3: The environment influences the dietary and nutritional outcomes in students.

The study variables will include Independent and Dependent variables. The Independent variables will be diet, nutrition, states, and the cities. Independent variables can be discussed as controlled inputs, while the dependent variables represent the outcome resulting from the inputs. In the study, the dependent variables include; College student, age, and sex. The individual-level covariates include the individual socio-demographics, which may be defined as age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, income, and household cohabitants. The independent measures will be subjected under a 7-point bipolar scale. The questions for the variables will be generated from SG Sapp and HH Jensen’s (2012) research study. The diet variable will be measured using three designed questions (was your diet in the last one week higher or lower in nutrition value? How healthy have your food choices been in the past two weeks? In the period of the last two weeks, how often have you made healthy food choices?) The importance of having a healthy diet will be measured with the following questions. The questions will be framed as to how is it important for you to have a meal rich in nutrition? Also, how does nutrition influence how you shop for your food?

The dependent variables were measured using the following questions does being in college influence your healthy food choices? The variable on gender will be covered when the participants tick whether they are male or female on the questionnaire. The demographic characteristics section in the questionnaire will majorly measure the dependent variables. Discriminant validity analysis will be conducted to test the correlation of the measurements and concepts in question as well as the observation of Pearson correlation between independent variables. In addition, a test to ascertain for biases as information is being obtained from a single group of students will be conducted the utilization of the measure or coding scheme is necessary as it enables the research to give a numeral value to the variables making the research efficient and effective. The study went by the research ethics and codes and ensured no research ethics principle was compromised, especially when dealing with the population and for the integrity of the study.

Being in college life is hard; one is required to juggle between a part-time job and school, and getting to look at what one eats may be difficult. Diet is an important part of our life. We are often taught that we are what we eat. The American Heart Association recommends that a proper diet should consist mostly of unprocessed plant foods, with emphasis on a wide range of whole grains, legumes, non-starchy vegetables, and fruits. A healthy diet is considered to be low in energy density, which may protect weight gain and associated diseases. Good nutrition, however, is not all about weight loss. Inadequate nutrition has been known to affect a student’s performance because nutrition is of great essence in the development of the brain (Powell, 2019). Getting to eat a nutritious diet is not as easy as it requires time to prepare, which most college students point out they do not have. There several other factors that contribute to unhealthy nutrition among college students, including stress, alcohol, and lack of exercise.

Firstly, joining college is a transition that is reported to pose some challenges to the students, especially in preparing and purchasing meals and keeping up with eating schedules. According to Kelly et al. (2013), various factors are said to affect the students from achieving healthy eating habits, and they include; the cost of foods, lack of peer support, and lack of access to healthy foods. Also, the academic challenges do not make the situation better and result in the student’s consumption being mostly high on sugar and fat, which lacks the required nutrients. To ascertain the way forward about the practice and research materials on nutrition among college students, 14 articles were selected among those published in 10 years from January 2001 – June 2011. From the review of the materials, it was concluded that the change in the behavior and pattern of healthy eating among students is related to personal, environmental, and behavior factors. Also, all these studies related to the student’s nutrition habits with a few of them focusing on sleep and exercise, the studies reflected some changes in the dietary intake of the children while some did not; the changes depicted were minimal. Also, only two had a long-term follow-up of the outcome wit ranged between 3-6 months, and the conclusions from the studies asserted that education and self-regulation strategies promoted better healthy eating. The lack of conclusive results and the need for further research on the topic was based on the fact that the study lacked follow up and lack of clarification on whether the sample population was selected out of convenience or power analyses. The sample population also was composed of white females; hence the issue of generalization was missing, and they were a possibility of bias in the intake of meals.

According to research by Auburn University, 95% of college students do not eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables (Gropper, 2012). Eating being a tedious process, most college students cannot cook sand prefer eating take-outs, yet they do not participate in physical activities. Eating disorders, especially obesity, are common among college students, and this is attributed to changes in eating habits, lifestyle changes, and stress. In the United States, statistics indicate that obesity among students has risen drastically. The most recent figures from the National Centre for Health Statistics indicate that a third of U.S. adults 20years and above are suffering from obesity. The numbers are quite high because a third of the population is roughly 100million individuals. The increase in cuts across the entire population, meaning obesity cases in young adults and children, is on the rise as well (Fruh, 2014).

According to Alshahrani & Chandramohan (2017), obesity is a major problem across the world and is the extensive and abnormal fat accumulation in the tissues; unfortunately, it has rapidly increased among both developed and developing countries and is the fifth leading cause of death. A healthy diet helps prevent obesity, which exposes people to hypertension, certain cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and type 2 diabetes. According to a study conducted by the World Health organization in 2005, among the 400 million people with obesity, more women and men accounted for the highest number. Additionally, a study was conducted on the eating habits and obesity among Saudi Arabia’s college students’ population this was after the country experienced fast socio-cultural changes attributed to the growing economy of the Arabian Gulf region. The study was conducted on the males, and it was concluded that 15.7% of the students were obese while 21.8% were overweight, and 55.2% of total body fat exceeded the normal limits. Also, the common eating habits that were prevalent among the college students was that most had only two meals in a day including breakfast, most had dinners with their families, and they frequently ate fried food and snacks. Unfortunately, students rarely consumed fruits and vegetables. From the study, it was concluded while research suggests that most women and men have obesity, this was not the case in Saudi Arabia since the male population rates were higher (Al-Rethaiaa et al., 2010). The study concluded that both the students and families needed to be made aware of the adverse effects of being obese and overweight to reduce the adverse effects of the condition.

Most studies conducted have portrayed that most students enjoy taking foods with high calories and fats compared to those with fruit and vegetables daily. From a study conducted by the American College Health Association, it was concluded that only 7.3% of students ate more than five meals that had vegetables and fruits with the transition to college playing a role in this dietary behavior. Various factors explained with these dietary changes; the places where the students lived was one factor with most students who lived off-campus most meals had proteins with the ratio of the cholesterol compared to lipoprotein being higher than those who resided in campus (Gerend, 2009). Also, gender played a role where female students consumed more fatty foods than males; however, the vegetable and fruits between the two was relatively similar. Also, the male students who lived off-campus took most protein meals than those residing in the campus; this was the case with the females where those residing off-campus meals had high lipoproteins than those on the campus. Most females too avoided most meals because of ethical, weight, and health reasons more than the female population who were also motivated by weight, pleasure, convenience, and price than males (Deshpande et al., 2009).

According to Yahia et al. (2016), Cardiovascular disease has been termed in the United States as the leading cause of death since, in every year, 1 of 4 deaths reported of the American adults are as a result of the illnesses. The disease is made severe by the intake of high fats and cholesterol; a study was conducted among college students to ascertain whether the reduced unhealthy fats consumption was from having nutrition knowledge. The study was conducted among 231 students who were recruited in the spring of 2012, and they all had a mean age of 20 years, they filled in a questionnaire on their daily fat consumption, nutrition knowledge, and demographics. Also, their waist height and weight were measures, and the information analysis was undertaken using ANOVA, students t-tests, and chi-square. From the study, it was concluded that female students that male had higher knowledge of nutrition, which was negatively associated with the intake of cholesterol and fat. The study also inferences that students who consumed less unhealthy cholesterol had more nutrition knowledge; the study emphasizes the importance of nutrition education to promote healthy eating among the students.

Moreover, research was undertaken to fill in the gap and provide insight into whether access to nutrition knowledge would lead to better behavior about healthy eating. To ascertain the effects of this information, a study was done among 200 college students and was a survey on the internet and required not only that students be freshmen but also they are taking the university meal plan. From the study, it was concluded that people’s access to information in nutrition positively impacted the type of foods the students took since those who had the most knowledge consumed the recommended amounts of both fruits and dairy products, unlike those with less information (Kolodinsky et al., 2007).

Additionally, college students are not able to meet the set exercise and nutrition guidelines that are rest in place to reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases, which include earing vegetables and fruits and taking low fatty products. To ascertain the barriers that prevent the meeting of the guidelines, a study among 471 college students that had been picked using the stratified random sample was conducted. From the study, it was concluded that most college students miss breakfast, and the statistics have no disparity between males and females; about 635 of the students consume snacks once or twice a day with male snacking because of partying while the females for emotional reasons. Also, the male student’s intake of alcohol and soda is higher than that of women and their intake too of fat products and canned foods. The reasons for the poor eating habits were attributed to lack of time by 40%, taste preferences by 15%, lack of money by 22%, and other reasons by 25% of the students; the other reasons were convenience and motivation (Silliman et al., 2004).

According to Yu & Tan (2016), various college students suffer from various addiction to certain foods and some disordered eating behaviors. To ascertain exactly how much the student was affected by these behaviors, a study was conducted that involved 961 college students aged between 18-25 were recruited through consenting to an email sent. The students selected were classified into three groups nutrition majors, non-nutrition health majors, and other majors. From the study, it was concluded that many students engaged in disordered eating behaviors, with 10% of the behavior being of concern; the number had no disparity among the groups. Also, 10.3% of the students had food addiction tendencies across the three groups. To ensure that the disorders among the college student reduced according to the study suggest that various measures should be put into place, encouraging obese students to lose weight, screening and increasing eating disorder awareness, and promotion of healthy habits.

This section entails the research methodologies that will be utilized to achieve the objectives of the study. It also gives an in-depth explanation of the population that the research is targeting. The sampling of the participants is illustrated together with the techniques to be used in data collection and management.

The research will utilize a cross-sectional design model of study. A cross-sectional design model is one of the most common and relatively easy to use study designs. It involves an examination of data from a population at one specific point in time. The entire population can be examined or a target group from the population chosen to answer the question of the research being conducted. This design is suitable for the collection of qualitative and quantitative data, both of which will be utilized throughout the research.

The cross-sectional study design is preferred for this study because of the many advantages it has. The advantages include; relatively cheap, collected data that can be used for various types of research and can be used to validate or invalidate assumptions. Additionally, the design can collect a wide range of data within a short period as well as analyze the cause-effect relationships in the study population.

Research data will be obtained from willing college students, who are the respondents. The participants include both male and female students aged between 18 and 24 years. This range represents students who are grading from the adolescence stage to young adulthood and are currently enrolled in college. The research will exclude students with limited college experience, which includes those in the first year of their studies and those taking short courses. The research will also prohibit the participation of students pursuing nutrition disciplines or any other related course, and this is because the students might have a broader knowledge regarding healthy eating habits, thus influence the results. In this regard, only students from other disciplines will participate in the research.

The research will employ a probability sampling technique to select participants. The technique allows for a sample to be chosen randomly from the population of the study. The sample is then used as a representation of the rest of the population. The greatest strength of using this technique is that everyone in the population has an equal chance of being selected, this will give the researcher a chance of obtaining a sample that truly represents the population, thus highly reliable information. The limitation of this technique is that it is relatively costlier and time-consuming than non-probability sampling methods. However, the researcher will incur the cost and time at the expense of reliable information.

Monetary compensation of $10 will be given to the participants to appreciate them for agreeing to take part in the research. However, the researcher recognizes this may attract the non-students whose interest will be the money, thus results in bias. To address this limitation, the researcher will work concurrently with the university administration in the verification of the eligible participants. An email will be sent to the eligible participants, with a link to fill an online questionnaire. The aim of the study will be included in the email to enlighten the participants on what it is about and why it is essential for them to participate.

College database will be used to ensure the participants from different demographic aspects and courses of study are selected to avoid bias. The aspects include age, gender, and ethnicity. U.S.A boasts several ethnic groups such as White-Americans, African-Americans, Hispanic, and Latino Americans; this is in addition to the many races, all of which influence nutrition habits. The process will result in a final appropriate sample constituting 121 college students who will take part in the research.

Data collection will be done using a questionnaire which will be developed after a thorough literature review is conducted. Nutritional knowledge and a trawl of relevant information obtained from peer-reviewed literature will help in generating an initial pool of questionnaire items. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) will be utilized to identify the predominant items and to selectively minimize the numbers to a manageable figure of 25 items in the eventual questionnaire. The items will be selected in a manner not to offend the respondents. The questionnaire will be tested and reviewed for validation by the peers, and this will be to ensure it is designed to measure the intended values. It will then be utilized as a data collection tool in which the participants will be required to fill in their responses.

The questionnaire mainly consists of two sections, one which requires demographic information and the second section, which focuses on the topic of study. The demographics will aim at obtaining information on the specifics of the participants and how they are likely to influence their diet. The subsequent statements in the second section will be asked in a bid to obtain information regarding the eating habits of the college students and their level of knowledge on the nutritional requirements for health.

The study will consist of five demographic and twenty survey statements. The five demographic questions will be age, gender, and ethnicity, area of residence, and socioeconomic status of the participants. Age is a critical demographic question that will determine whether the participant if fit for the target audience or not, and this will be done in a multiple-choice format using an age range structure for each participant to answer. The researcher acknowledges that some participants are usually uncomfortable to reveal their exact age, and therefore the age range structure will protect their personal information while responding.

Gender is one of the most indispensable tools while carrying out this research and appreciating the fact that different genders tend to have different nutritional habits, for instance, the female gender is likely to select cautiously on what to eat due to reasons to do with their body shapes and appearance. Gender questions will be phrased in a way to give the respondent more flexibility while answering so that they don’t feel forced to relay sensitive information.

Ethnicity though a sensitive topic, will give a clearer picture of the participants’ cultural backgrounds. U.S.A has a population of several ethnic groups, and this is likely to influence their nutritional habits since each has different traditions, beliefs, and practices. A multiple answer phrase will be used to obtain this information with a list of all the ethnic groups found in the country.

The area of residence is a question that will enable the researcher to understand fully how the environment influences the dietary behavior of the students. Students living off-campus or with their parents are likely to have different nutritional and dietary habits from those staying on their own at college. The reason for this is because students within the campus are likely to eat from the college cafeteria or take-outs foods, while those living in their homes eat food cooked at home. The socioeconomic status of the participants is essential in this study, as it indicates the social standing and class of the individual; it will determine whether the class of an individual in terms of finances influences their diet in terms of what food they can afford. The question will be phrased in a multiple-choice form in which the participants chose their socioeconomic classes, which are low, middle, or upper.

The researcher will ensure flexibility among the participants by including the option of “I prefer not to say.” this will ensure the participants don’t feel pressured to disseminate information they consider sensitive. The second section of the questionnaire will constitute two parts. The first part, which comprises questions 1-12, will be based on the general eating habits of the participants and the foods they consume. These survey statements will make use of the frequency scale Never (1), rarely (2), every day (3), and more than once a day (4), for instance, how frequently do you eat fruits? Do you engage in any sporting activities?

The second part of this section, questions 13-20, will address the level of knowledge on nutrition and the factors that influence the nutrition and diet of college students. Nutritional statements will be presented, and the respondents will be required to evaluate it by giving a qualitative value, with a level of agreement or disagreement. An agreement scale will be utilized in this instance and will include a seven-level item. The items are; strongly agree, somehow agree, agree, disagree, somehow disagree, strongly disagree, and neither agree nor disagree for a neutral response. An example of a question in this part is; “low fruit and vegetable consumption is an unhealthy eating habit.”

The questions for the variables will be generated from SG Sapp and HH Jensen’s (2012) research study. The diet variable will be measured using three designed questions (was your diet in the last one week higher or lower in nutrition value? How healthy have your food choices been in the past two weeks? In the period of the last two weeks, how often have you made healthy food choices?) The importance of having a healthy diet will be measured with the following questions. The questions will be framed as to how is it important for you to have a meal rich in nutrition? Also, how does nutrition influence how you shop for your food?

Permission to survey the college will be obtained from the college authority, and the participants will be free to partake in the study before or after their meals based on their preference. An informed consent form will be attached to the questionnaire. It will provide adequate information on the subject of study, allowing the respondents to choose whether to participate or not. The options of “I consent” and “I do not Consent” will be provided for the respondent to select before proceeding to fill the questionnaire.

The informed consent form will comprise the following criteria information, the title of the study, followed by a general statement about the study, and how the respondent was selected. The name of the researcher will then be included, followed by background information explaining the research question in brief. A procedure oh how the participant will be required to participate is then illustrated. The risks and benefits of being in the study will be outlined by the researcher. The compensation plan will follow with the compensation amount and how the money will be disbursed to the respondent. Finally, the confidentiality statement by the researcher explaining to the correspondents who will access the information provided, how it will be used, and for how long and the last part will be for the respondent acceptance purpose. The statements used will address the respondents using the second-person pronoun “you.” For instance, “you are free to withdraw from this study at any time.”

The information obtained from the participants will be kept confidential, and hence there will be no writing of names on the questionnaire; this is the best way of assuring the participants that their participation in the survey will not affect their personal and course progress. The filled questionnaires will be checked for completeness, and follow-up will be made to ensure questions are answered appropriately. A follow-up email will be applied to improve response rates and accuracy. Upon completion, the data collected will be systematically arranged in codes of the questionnaires to ensure the data analysis process takes off seamlessly. Coding is the best way to analyze the obtained data since the research is dealing with quantitative questions rather than open-ended questions. This technique allows repeating themes to be identified and tagged with a code with which they can be searched and counted. The codes are evolved, merged, and broken down to come up with a bunch of themes and ideas of their frequency.

The study variables will include Independent variables [IV] and Dependent variables [DV]. Independent variables can be discussed as controlled inputs, while the dependent variables represent the outcome resulting from the inputs. The Independent variables will be diet, nutrition, states, and the cities. Diet in this study represents the summation of the food an individual consumes daily and circumstances connected to eating. Nutrition, on the other hand, involves consuming a diet rich in the nourishment of every level and is influenced by cohabitants, environment, and individual demographics. Universities differ based on the state in which they are located. Students based in colleges located in highly industrialized states have different nutrition habits when compared to those in states engaged in agricultural activities. The cost of living in cities is usually far higher, and thus the level of income will directly influence expenditure on food. For instance, low-income people tend to suffer most from “food deserts.”

The dependent variables include; College student, age, and sex. The individual-level covariates include the individual socio-demographics, which may be defined as age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, income, and household cohabitants. The dependent variables will be measured using the following questions. Area of residence, does your area of residence in college influence your healthy food choices? The variable on gender will be covered when the participants tick whether they are male, female, or intersex on the questionnaire. The age variable is covered when the respond tick on the age range, 18-20, 20-22, and 22-24, ethnicity when the participants select their ethnic group listed in the dropdown manner and Socioeconomic status when the respondent tick on either, upper class, middle class or low class. Education level is likely to affect diet choices. Students raised in families that have a low level of education are likely to have unhealthy eating habits because of inadequate knowledge of healthy eating habits. Race can be perceived as the ethnic affiliation the students belong to, which impacts the diet choice. The demographic characteristics section in the questionnaire will majorly measure the dependent variables.

Discriminant validity analysis will be conducted to test the correlation between the measurements and concepts. A correlation is a number describing the relationship between two variables. For example, looking at the relationship between gender (DV) and nutrition (IV), based on a hypothesis that “your gender influence nutrition.” Data can be collected, and analysis carried out for each of the genders about nutrition. Nutrition can be scaled between values 1-10 where minimum values represent diet low in nutrition, while maximum value represents diet rich in nutrition. Pearson correlation between independent variables will be observed. Pearson correlation technique is used to determine how strong the relationship is between IV and DV. The Pearson coefficient value, r is calculated to show the relationship between the two variables by use of the following formula;

Where = Mean of the X variables

= Mean of the Y variables

The r-value ranges between -1.00 and 1.00. If the coefficient value, r lies in the negative range, it means that the relationship between the IV and DV variables is negatively correlated; for instance, as one variable increases, the other variable decreases. If the r-value lies in the positive range, it means that the relationship between the variables is positively correlated; for instance, both variables increases or decrease together. Data analysis using the two techniques is much easier as they give a linear relationship between the variables, thus easier to interpret.

In addition, a test to test for biases as information will be obtained from a single group of students will be conducted the utilization of the measure or coding scheme is necessary as it enables the research to give a numeral value to the variables making the research efficient and effective. The study went by the research ethics and codes and ensured no research ethics principle was compromised, especially when dealing with the population and for the integrity of the study.

Nutrition and diet is a topic that has gained popularity stemming from healthy related deaths and complication that affects most people. Parents, while binging up their children, tr