Faculty Mentor(s)
Dr. Cathy Anstrom
Project Type
Departmental Honors project
Scholarship Domain(s)
Scholarship of Discovery
Presentation Type
Poster Session
Abstract
Background
Basch et al. (2018) found that 74% (n=190) of students indicated that they would often or always use the internet for health information. Nutrition literacy is an important aspect of health literacy. Health literacy is defined as the skills or ability needed to comprehend and apply nutrition or health information (Svendsen et al., 2021). Nutrition misinformation can be harmful to an individual’s wellbeing because of the fallible, misleading, and erroneous content (Wansink, 2006). The purpose of this study was to explore students’ knowledge as it pertains to the inaccurate nutritional information found within social media.
Methods
A quantitative design was used. Participants included all college students (2800) aged 18-23 at a Midwestern university, 126 usable surveys were returned. The validated questionnaire used was the Short Food Literacy Questionnaire (SFLQ) that referenced the Food Guide Pyramid (FGP) and assessed critical and functional elements of food literacy of participants. (Krause et al., 2018). Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rho test were used to analyze the data.
Results
Most participants (56%) felt that it was easy to recognize credible sources of nutrition information. Confidence in the FGP was statistically significant (pp=0.111) when nutritional information came from social media.
Conclusion
College students have an overall confidence level of nutrition awareness and ability to recognize credible nutrition information. College courses provided a better knowledge base of information than the use of social media.
Funding Source
None
Permission Type
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Social Media’s Influence on College Students’ Recognition of Inaccurate Nutrition Information
Fishbowl
Background
Basch et al. (2018) found that 74% (n=190) of students indicated that they would often or always use the internet for health information. Nutrition literacy is an important aspect of health literacy. Health literacy is defined as the skills or ability needed to comprehend and apply nutrition or health information (Svendsen et al., 2021). Nutrition misinformation can be harmful to an individual’s wellbeing because of the fallible, misleading, and erroneous content (Wansink, 2006). The purpose of this study was to explore students’ knowledge as it pertains to the inaccurate nutritional information found within social media.
Methods
A quantitative design was used. Participants included all college students (2800) aged 18-23 at a Midwestern university, 126 usable surveys were returned. The validated questionnaire used was the Short Food Literacy Questionnaire (SFLQ) that referenced the Food Guide Pyramid (FGP) and assessed critical and functional elements of food literacy of participants. (Krause et al., 2018). Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rho test were used to analyze the data.
Results
Most participants (56%) felt that it was easy to recognize credible sources of nutrition information. Confidence in the FGP was statistically significant (pp=0.111) when nutritional information came from social media.
Conclusion
College students have an overall confidence level of nutrition awareness and ability to recognize credible nutrition information. College courses provided a better knowledge base of information than the use of social media.
Funding Source
None