Liu Qian, Chen Jinyi
Department of Food Nutrition and Safety, Sanda University, Shanghai, China.
Front Public Health. 2025 Jun 26;13:1577633. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1577633. eCollection 2025.
The effective utilization of nutrition labels on prepackaged foods can facilitate the cultivation of healthful dietary behaviors among college students, thereby mitigating the risk of chronic non-communicable diseases. The study assessed the ability of college students in China's economically and educationally highly developed provinces to use food nutrition labels and explored the associated factors affecting the awareness of food nutrition labels.
A crosssectional study was conducted among college students enrolled in five higher education institutions in China. This study used a structured questionnaire method to collect data, descriptive statistics, and multivariate logistic regression to analyze and process the data.
71.8% of college students had low awareness of food nutrition labeling. Awareness of food nutrition labeling was positively correlated with the degree of need (OR: 1.903; 95% Cl: 1.513-2.394), frequency of use (OR: 1.780; 95% Cl: 1.537-2.062), and trust (OR: 1.113; 95% Cl: 1.009-1.229), and was negatively correlated with the study of nutrition courses (OR: 0.655; 95% Cl: 0.528-0.812). The most important way for college students to acquire knowledge about food nutrition labeling was online videos (52.4%, = 1,318). Furthermore, frequent utilization of nutritional labels in food choices, high demand, and high trust in food nutrition labels play a significant role in enhancing the awareness among college students in economically and educationally highly developed provinces.
In light of our finding, we propose a reform of the existing nutrition education system to enhance nutritional awareness among college students through a more diversified set of instructional approaches and the implementation of compulsory nutrition education at an earlier stage. Leveraging popular media platforms to widely distribute professing nutritional information during daily public nutrition education is also advised.
有效利用预包装食品上的营养标签有助于培养大学生健康的饮食习惯，从而降低慢性非传染性疾病的风险。本研究评估了中国经济和教育高度发达省份大学生使用食品营养标签的能力，并探讨了影响食品营养标签认知的相关因素。
在中国五所高等院校的大学生中开展了一项横断面研究。本研究采用结构化问卷调查法收集数据，运用描述性统计和多因素logistic回归进行数据分析和处理。
71.8%的大学生对食品营养标签认知较低。食品营养标签认知与需求程度（OR：1.903；95%CI：1.513 - 2.394）、使用频率（OR：1.780；95%CI：1.537 - 2.062）和信任度（OR：1.113；95%CI：1.009 - 1.229）呈正相关，与营养课程学习（OR：0.655；95%CI：0.528 - 0.812）呈负相关。大学生获取食品营养标签知识的最重要途径是网络视频（52.4%，n = 1318）。此外，在食品选择中频繁使用营养标签、高需求以及对食品营养标签的高度信任，对提高经济和教育高度发达省份大学生的认知具有重要作用。
基于我们的研究结果，我们建议改革现有的营养教育体系，通过更多样化的教学方法和在早期实施强制性营养教育来提高大学生的营养意识。还建议在日常公共营养教育中利用大众媒体平台广泛传播专业营养信息。
