Nutr Res Pract.  2012 Dec;6(6):551-558.

Applying the Health Belief Model to college students' health behavior

• Kim HS
• Ahn J
• No JK

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate how university students' nutrition beliefs influence their health behavioral intention. This study used an online survey engine (Qulatrics.com) to collect data from college students. Out of 253 questionnaires collected, 251 questionnaires (99.2%) were used for the statistical analysis. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) revealed that six dimensions, "Nutrition Confidence," "Susceptibility," "Severity," "Barrier," "Benefit," "Behavioral Intention to Eat Healthy Food," and "Behavioral Intention to do Physical Activity," had construct validity; Cronbach's alpha coefficient and composite reliabilities were tested for item reliability. The results validate that objective nutrition knowledge was a good predictor of college students' nutrition confidence. The results also clearly showed that two direct measures were significant predictors of behavioral intentions as hypothesized. Perceived benefit of eating healthy food and perceived barrier for eat healthy food to had significant effects on Behavioral Intentions and was a valid measurement to use to determine Behavioral Intentions. These findings can enhance the extant literature on the universal applicability of the model and serve as useful references for further investigations of the validity of the model within other health care or foodservice settings and for other health behavioral categories.

Keyword

College students; health behavior; Health Belief Model; objective nutrition knowledge; nutrition confidence

MeSH Terms

Collodion
Delivery of Health Care
Eating
Health Behavior
Humans
Intention
Surveys and Questionnaires
Collodion

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Results of Testing the Hypothesized Model *P < 0.05 **P < 0.01 ***P < 0.001, Dotted lines indicate non-significant structural paths, Overall Goodness-of-Fit Comparisons for the specified Model GFI = Goodness of fit index, CFI = Comparative fit index, NFI = Normed fit index, IFI = Incremental fit index, TLI = Tucker-Lewis coefficient index, RMSEA = Root mean square error of approximation

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