College Students' Perceptions of Fast Food Restaurant Menu Items on Health

Background: Examining the beliefs about fast food and health, especially the consequences of fast food intake (FFI) on health, among college students will be a crucial factor in turning the tide on current morbidity and mortality statistics. Purpose: This article examines the results of a survey among Midwestern college-aged students about their fast food restaurant menu item selection and how they perceive that these choices are affecting their health as a means to direct university curriculum. Methods: Researchers used SurveyMonkey to disseminate a questionnaire to currently enrolled college students from 3 area tertiary educational institutions. The survey was analyzed using SPSS for mean, standard deviation, and chi-square. Results: Statistical differences were found between male (N = 110) and female (N = 389) college students in terms of number of fast food visits (P = 0.032), consumption of diet soda (P = 0.009), consumption of hamburgers (P = 0.000), and what is considered harmful FFI (P = 0.032; effect size for all results was very small, η2 = 0.02). Discussion: This study indicates some gender differences between college students' fast food menu choices; that is, more males than females consume fast food, feel that hamburgers are not harmful, and consume less diet soda. Translation to Health Education Practice: The results indicate less fast food consumption among this population than hypothesized but supported previous research in terms of gender and FFI. Health educators may have successfully emphasized the deleterious consequences of fast food such that actual consumption is being underreported or this population has lower fast food consumption compared to other geographic locations. With the increasing emergence of televised cooking, health educators may want to fashion nutrition information around wholesome raw ingredients and organic methods to promote positive food choices among all age groups.