Educational Intervention of Intention Change for Consumption of Junk Food among School Adolescents in Birgunj Metropolitan City, Nepal, Based on Theory of Planned Behaviors

Consumption of junk food among adolescents has been recognized as a serious health problem in the world. Therefore, this study aims to assess the effectiveness of an educational intervention program (interactive lecture) based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) for reducing junk food consumption among school adolescents in Birgunj Metropolitan City, Nepal. A structured questionnaire was deployed for collecting the data from four government schools. Pretest and Posttest group study design and simple random sampling techniques were used. A multiple linear regression model and a paired t-test were used to assess the effectiveness of an educational intervention program. The theory of planned behavior indicates that behavioral intention of junk food consumption was different in pretest and posttest [5.43 +/- 1.3 and 7.96 +/- 0.3]. Furthermore, the average score of attitude toward junk food consumption was 11.9 +/- 1.5 and 16.3 +/- 1.6. Meanwhile, perceived behavior control (PBC) toward junk food was also different after intervention [2.42 +/- 0.50 and 3.13 +/- 0.58]. The interactive lecture method was proved an effective education program for changing the intentions of adolescent students and preventing them from consuming junk food which were statistically significant (<0.05). In addition, behavioral intention of junk food consumption, attitude toward junk food consumption, and perceived behavioral control toward junk food were statistically significant (<0.05). Therefore, study concluded that the intervention program has positive influence on the perceived behavior without control group of school-going adolescents.