Abstract
BackgroundIncreasing the healthfulness of campus food environments is an important step in promoting healthful food choices among college students. This study explored university students’ suggestions on promoting healthful food choices from campus vending machines. It also examined factors influencing students’ food choices from vending machines.MethodsPeer-led semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 43 undergraduate students (33 females and 10 males) recruited from students enrolled in an introductory nutrition course in a large national university in the United Arab Emirates. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded to generate themes using N-Vivo software.ResultsAccessibility, peer influence, and busy schedules were the main factors influencing students’ food choices from campus vending machines. Participants expressed the need to improve the nutritional quality of the food items sold in the campus vending machines. Recommendations for students’ nutrition educational activities included placing nutrition tips on or beside the vending machines and using active learning methods, such as competitions on nutrition knowledge.ConclusionsThe results of this study have useful applications in improving the campus food environment and nutrition education opportunities at the university to assist students in making healthful food choices.
Highlights
Increasing the healthfulness of campus food environments is an important step in promoting healthful food choices among college students
The four major categories of vending machines in descending order were: snack food machines dispensing items such as potato chips and nuts (35.6 %), coffee and tea machines (24 %), non-diet cola drink machines (17.1 %), and water machines (13.7 %)
We explored students’ suggestions on promoting healthful food choices from campus vending machines as an environmental food change strategy to facilitate healthful food choices among university students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country that has recently undergone nutrition transition [28, 35]
Summary
Increasing the healthfulness of campus food environments is an important step in promoting healthful food choices among college students. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the prevalence of overweight, obesity, and diet-related chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes has increased dramatically in recent years This has been attributed mainly to rapid socioeconomic development, which led to changes in eating patterns, food choices, and physical activity levels [1,2,3,4,5]. Increased consumption of energy-dense foods and limited physical activity has resulted in nearly 73 % of adults and 35 % of children and adolescents aged 5–17 being characterized as either overweight or obese [4] During their college years, students make important decisions about their food choices and these food patterns. The foodscapes framework helps to understand the role of ecological factors, including how the food environment plays a major role in people’s food interactions This is important in relation to captive eating outside the home environment, such as in schools and universities. The importance of modifying the campus food environment by applying a holistic approach to health promotion in university settings has been highlighted previously [15, 16]
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