KNOWLEDGE, PERCEPTION, ATTITUDE AND USE OF FOOD LABELLING INFORMATION AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The inappropriate and non use of food labels that are supposed to inform the consumer and help sell food products have contributed immensely to the rising prevalence of overweight and obesity globally, especially in Nigeria where there is rising number of Non Communicable Diseases related deaths constituting major threat to the public health status of the citizenry. The high circulation of misleading and misrepresentation of food nutritional information has added to the burden of diet disorders in the society and have caused serious health challenges in the nation with overweight, obesity and diabetes on top of the list. This study was conducted to investigate the knowledge, perception, attitude and use of food labelling information among undergraduate students of the University of Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey which used a four-stage sampling technique to recruit 422 respondents from the target population of undergraduate students in the University of Ibadan. A semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to elicit information on respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, perception, attitude and use of food labeling information. Majority (68.0%) of the respondents had good knowledge, perception of food label, attitude towards food labeling information and the practice of respondents. Knowledge was assessed on a 34-point scale and scores (KS) of 0-14, 15-24, and 25-34 were categorised as poor, fair, and good knowledge scores respectively. A 12-point scale was used for the perception 0-6= poor, and 7-12= good perception. The attitude was measured on a 9-point scale with 0-5 =poor and 6-9 =good attitude. The use of food labeling information was assessed on a 24-point scale with score of 0-12 =poor, and 13-24 representing good use of food label. More than half (55.7%) were males. The mean age of respondents was 21.3 ± 3.2 years . More (32.9%) of the respondents were 100 level students , majority (80.8%) of the respondents were of the Yoruba ethnic group. The mean knowledge score was 25.6 ± 4.5, majority (68.0%) of the respondents had good knowledge. The mean perception score was 7.6 ± 2.1 points, majority (73.9%) of the respondents had good perception. The mean attitude score was 5.6 ± 2.2 points, majority (73.9%) of the respondents had good attitude. Majority (73.1%) reported that they use food labeling information while, the proportion that do not use food labels attributed their reasons to; small print (16.0%), not interested (18.1%), don’t believe it (12.8%) and no time (12.8%). Inferential statistics showed that there was a significant association between the use of food labels and; knowledge((p=0.000)),the use of food labels and perception((p=0.000)) and an association between use of food labels and attitude (p=0.000). The findings of this study indicates that the overall knowledge, attitude and use of the food label was good, however, some gaps exits in the understanding of some information gotten from the food label and a poor perception of expiry date which is dangerous to their health. There is need to sensitize the university students on the benefits of utilizing information on food labels by introducing nutritional education as a part of the GIS curriculum in order to expand their nutrition knowledge in selecting healthy food choices both at schools and outside towards preventing eating disorders.