%0 Journal Article
%T A 10-Week Multimodal Nutrition Education Intervention Improves Dietary Intake among University Students: Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial
%A Mohd Razif Shahril
%A Wan Putri Elena Wan Dali
%A Pei Lin Lua
%J Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/658642
%X The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing multimodal nutrition education intervention (NEI) to improve dietary intake among university students. The design of study used was cluster randomised controlled design at four public universities in East Coast of Malaysia. A total of 417 university students participated in the study. They were randomly selected and assigned into two arms, that is, intervention group (IG) or control group (CG) according to their cluster. The IG received 10-week multimodal intervention using three modes (conventional lecture, brochures, and text messages) while CG did not receive any intervention. Dietary intake was assessed before and after intervention and outcomes reported as nutrient intakes as well as average daily servings of food intake. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and adjusted effect size were used to determine difference in dietary changes between groups and time. Results showed that, compared to CG, participants in IG significantly improved their dietary intake by increasing their energy intake, carbohydrate, calcium, vitamin C and thiamine, fruits and 100% fruit juice, fish, egg, milk, and dairy products while at the same time significantly decreased their processed food intake. In conclusion, multimodal NEI focusing on healthy eating promotion is an effective approach to improve dietary intakes among university students. 1. Introduction The transition from adolescence to young adulthood which is mostly spent at colleges or universities is gaining recognition as an important time for health promotion and disease prevention [1]. This is the critical time during which young people establish independence and adopt lasting health behaviour patterns. Although once considered to be an age of optimal health and well-being, it is well documented that university students nowadays have poor dietary habits [2, 3]. University students often fail to meet recommended target for fruits and vegetables (FV) [4, 5], whole grain, milk, and dairy products [6, 7] compared to their adolescence years. They also tend to skip meals especially breakfast [8, 9] and have higher consumption of fast food, snacks, and soft drinks [10¨C12]. Poor eating habits in earlier stage of life have been directly linked to serious health consequences later in life such as osteoporosis, obesity, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes [13, 14]. Therefore early interventions are needed to improve health behaviours in this age group [15]. Currently only a few nutrition education interventions (NEI) have targeted college or university students
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jnme/2013/658642/