Prejudices and barriers which explain poor diets among young university students

The time people spend at university is one of their most important formative periods, and not only in academic terms. Students begin to become conscious of and responsible for their own habits at this time, when their everyday lives take them outside their family environment. These habits are not always healthy, especially when it comes to diet.

A recent study conducted by researchers from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the UOC (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) has identified the main barriers faced by university students regards cooking at home and having a healthy diet during this period in their lives. "Despite being a crucial period for establishing an identity and adopting healthy dietary habits, university students have poor adherence to a Mediterranean diet," said FoodLab research Patricia Jurado González, the leading author of this thesis project within the Doctoral Programme in Health and Psychology, which also involved Anna Bach Faig, a researcher in the FoodLab group at the UOC and the director of the Master's Degree in Healthy and Sustainable Food, and Francesc Xavier Medina, the principal investigator at FoodLab and a professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Main barriers identified

The experts used various participatory social research methods, including surveys and photovoice techniques, to study 24 young males and females aged between 18 and 22 years old and to evaluate their perceptions, behaviour and adherence to healthy eating and cooking at home. As well as identifying barriers, the most common recipes used by university students in their everyday lives were also 'mapped', and the preconceptions and concepts that students have about what a healthy diet means at the beginning of this stage in their education were evaluated.

According to the authors, the main barrier to healthy eating and cooking is the lack of intrinsic motivation. "Although they often mention a lack of time, these constraints were more closely linked to personal priorities," noted Bach Faig.

Other barriers are the lack of culinary knowledge and skills, as well as social pressure, a lack of equipped kitchens in student flats, easy access to convenience foods, and the high prices of healthy food. The diet of university students, one of the most nutritionally vulnerable age groups, is characterized by their excessive consumption of snacks, fast food and sugary drinks, and very low intake of fruits and vegetables.

Meanwhile, the students say that they are not motivated enough to follow a healthy diet, and consequently, they prioritize social and academic commitments over spending time on preparing healthy food. "This lack of motivation is exacerbated by a lack of self-efficacy when cooking, as they lack the knowledge and skills they need to prepare quick, easy and nutritious meals," noted Medina.

These barriers can lead to significant health problems in the long term, as the development of an individual's identity is directly linked to their behaviour, especially among young people. Moreover, this period is critical for establishing healthy dietary habits in the long term. "The scientific evidence shows that people are particularly susceptible to weight gain during their first year at university," said Medina.

According to figures from Spain's latest National Health Survey, around 17% of young people between 18 and 24 years of age are overweight, and 8% are obese. This affects the male population to a greater extent.

Factors behind poor diet

According to the experts, there are numerous reasons which account for young university students' poor adherence to a healthy diet. "It's a very complex and systemic problem, so it can't be attributed to just one factor, although we've found that the failure to learn culinary skills due to the decline in cooking at home is one of the most significant factors," said Jurado González.

However, diets during this time in the students' lives are also directly influenced by their change in social habits, busy lifestyles, a nutritional environment with constant exposure to unhealthy options, and strong social pressure that encourages people to consume fast and convenience foods. "There's a lack of awareness and, above all, a lack of awareness of what a balanced dish is, or what healthy eating should look like," pointed out Bach Faig.

The most common misguided preconceptions among young people included ideas such as "healthy eating is very expensive", "cooking a healthy dish takes a long time", "cooking pulses is very complicated" and "cooking vegetables that aren't pre-prepared or frozen beforehand, like aubergines, requires a lot of knowledge".

Furthermore, all participants in this study said that their diet had become much worse since they started university, and none included vegetables in their diet on a regular basis. They also said that foods such as fish, pulses and some vegetables are "difficult to cook", which was why they do not include them in their diet. "All the students said that their daily meals were based on pasta or rice, accompanied by various grilled sources of protein, such as eggs, chicken or tuna", explained Jurado Gonzalez.

All these poor eating habits are closely linked to lifestyles, and as such the results of this study could be applied to other Mediterranean contexts with similar university cultures and lifestyles. "In other words, these results aren't limited exclusively to the population of university students; they can also be reliably extrapolated to young adults," the authors pointed out.

Strategies to improve nutrition

In this context, and based on the data obtained and the behaviour observed, the experts advocate exploring specific strategies to counteract these negative trends, in order to improve students' nutritional health. "All this information aims to lead to a culinary intervention based on social cognitive theory, in order to improve their culinary self-efficacy and the quality of their diet," explained Medina.

Organizing educational programmes through social media to enhance knowledge and culinary self-efficacy, with the students themselves participating in their design, is considered one of the most effective strategies and a decisive factor in improving this area of health among university students.

"The influence of an individual's social environment at this stage of their life should be harnessed as a key factor in adopting healthy eating habits. One way to do this would be to take advantage of the role of new technologies and role models in this area," said Jurado González. These tactics should provide motivation for voluntary participation in culinary education programmes in order to bring about "a conscious change in dietary habits," the experts concluded.

This UOC research supports Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, Good Health and Well-being, and 4, Quality Education.

Reference article:

Jurado-González, P. [Patricia], Medina, F. Xavier [Francesc Xavier], Bach-Faig, A. [Anna]. (2024). Barriers to home food preparation and healthy eating among university students in Catalonia. Appetite, 194, 107159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2023.107159

UOC R&I

The UOC's research and innovation (R&I) is helping overcome pressing challenges faced by global societies in the 21st century by studying interactions between technology and human & social sciences with a specific focus on the network society, e-learning and e-health.

Over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups work in the UOC's seven faculties, its eLearning Research programme and its two research centres: the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the eHealth Center (eHC).

The university also develops online learning innovations at its eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC), as well as UOC community entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer via the Hubbik platform.

Open knowledge and the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serve as strategic pillars for the UOC's teaching, research and innovation. More information: research.uoc.edu.