Knowledge, attitudes, and label use among college students

This study examined the relationships among nutrition education, knowledge, attitude, use of nutritional supplements, and label reading behavior among 537 randomly selected college students using a conceptual model. The majority of the respondents were women, undergraduate students, and nonsmokers. The mean age was 23+/-6.1 years. A higher percentage of undergraduate students and women had prior exposure to nutrition education, a positive attitude, and greater knowledge of food labels as compared to their graduate and male peers. The structural equation model indicated nutrition education, age, sex, and attitude predicted label use; prior nutrition education and a positive attitude exhibited the strongest (direct) effects on label reading behavior. Attitude mediated the relationship between knowledge and label reading behavior. The indexes of fit for the tested model indicated a good fit; the predictors accounted for 44% of the variance in label usage.