Student’s characteristics and fast food consumption

BACKGROUND: Many health hazards are known to be closely related to the consumption of fast food. The present study was conducted with the objective to investigate how students' characteristics (attitude, control beliefs, and normative beliefs) motivate the consumption of fast food. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, a total number of 401 students of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran, were randomly selected and studied in 2015. A questionnaire was administered to collect information about student's demographic characteristics as well as their attitudes and beliefs towards using fast food. Correlation analysis and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) followed by univariate ANOVA were used to interpret the results. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 21.20 ± 2.80 years and 254 (67.20%) of them were female. Furthermore, 60.54% of the students were found with tendency to use fast food. The MANOVA analysis showed that the effect of gender on students' characteristics was significant (P = 0.005), however the effect of grade was marginally insignificant (P = 0.053). Post-hoc univariate ANOVA showed that the gender was highly associated with control beliefs (P = 0.030) and normative beliefs (P = 0.004). No significant association was found between gender and student's attitude (P = 0.610). CONCLUSION: A training program for medical students in Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences is recommended to encourage students to reduce the consumption of fast food.