Impact of Nutrition Education on University Students’ Eating Behavior among Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia

Abstract

Young adults in Malaysia are suffering from alarmingly high rates of obesity, and more than half of the students do not consume enough essential nutrients, according to Malaysian recommendations. There are indicators of links between nutrition education and eating behavior, but the results are lacking in the body of knowledge. Hence, this study is to ascertain this hypothesis. In terms of methodology, this study was conducted using a quantitative research design and was based on the opinions of 222 university students studying in the faculties or departments of food science or nutrition at two public universities and two private universities. The instrument was modified to measure the students' eating behaviors and a nutrition education program for data collection. Non-parametric statistics, descriptive statistics, the chi-square test, and the t-test were employed in the analysis. Most students were found to "strongly agree" with their nutrition education program, and they exhibited acceptable eating behaviors. There is no statistically significant link between a nutrition education program and eating behaviors in terms of the relationship between the variables. Additionally, the variation in eating behaviors between private and public universities is not noticeably different.