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Description
Background In the United States (US), first-year university students typically live on campus and purchase a meal plan. In general, meal plans allow the student a set number of meals per week or semester, or unlimited meals. Understanding how students’ use their meal plan, and barriers and facilitators to meal

Background In the United States (US), first-year university students typically live on campus and purchase a meal plan. In general, meal plans allow the student a set number of meals per week or semester, or unlimited meals. Understanding how students’ use their meal plan, and barriers and facilitators to meal plan use, may help decrease nutrition-related issues.

Methods First-year students’ meal plan and residence information was provided by a large, public, southwestern university for the 2015-2016 academic year. A subset of students (n=619) self-reported their food security status. Logistic generalized estimating equations (GEEs) were used to determine if meal plan purchase and use were associated with food insecurity. Linear GEEs were used to examine several potential reasons for lower meal plan use. Logistic and Linear GEEs were used to determine similarities in meal plan purchase and use for a total of 599 roommate pairs (n=1186 students), and 557 floormates.

Results Students did not use all of the meals available to them; 7% of students did not use their meal plan for an entire month. After controlling for socioeconomic factors, compared to students on unlimited meal plans, students on the cheapest meal plan were more likely to report food insecurity (OR=2.2, 95% CI=1.2, 4.1). In Fall, 26% of students on unlimited meal plans reported food insecurity. Students on the 180 meals/semester meal plan who used fewer meals were more likely to report food insecurity (OR=0.9, 95% CI=0.8, 1.0); after gender stratification this was only evident for males. Students’ meal plan use was lower if the student worked a job (β=-1.3, 95% CI=-2.3, -0.3) and higher when their roommate used their meal plan frequently (β=0.09, 99% CI=0.04, 0.14). Roommates on the same meal plan (OR=1.56, 99% CI=1.28, 1.89) were more likely to use their meals together.

Discussion This study suggests that determining why students are not using their meal plan may be key to minimizing the prevalence of food insecurity on college campuses, and that strategic roommate assignments may result in students’ using their meal plan more frequently. Students’ meal plan information provides objective insights into students’ university transition.
Contributorsvan Woerden, Irene (Author) / Bruening, Meg (Thesis advisor) / Hruschka, Daniel (Committee member) / Schaefer, David (Committee member) / Vega-Lopez, Sonia (Committee member) / Adams, Marc (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the content of nutrition marketing materials within the cafeterias of schools in Central Arizona. By collecting photographs of marketing material from three elementary schools, one K-8 school, three middle schools and three high schools, 59 pieces of nutrition marketing were

The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the content of nutrition marketing materials within the cafeterias of schools in Central Arizona. By collecting photographs of marketing material from three elementary schools, one K-8 school, three middle schools and three high schools, 59 pieces of nutrition marketing were gathered. The schools chosen were a convenience sample and selected from schools that were already participating in ASU' s School Lunch Study. The photographs were sorted by grade level and then coded quantitatively and qualitatively for their purpose, visual components, strategies used and relevance. Results from this novel study provided insight into prevalence, size, textual content, educational content, strategies for fruit and vegetable marketing, messaging and overall design of existing nutrition marketing within the sample schools. This study found that the prevalence of nutrition marketing within all school cafeterias appeared to be low, particularly within elementary and middle schools. Diverse types of messaging were present among elementary, middle and high schools and a variety of appeals were utilized with little consistency. Many of the strategies used in the nutrition marketing appeared disconnected from the population it was intended to appeal to. Educational components were notably lacking within middle school cafeterias but were often effectively integrated into high school nutrition marketing. The results are unique to this population, and further research is required to evaluate the content of existing nutrition material on a larger scale, so efforts can be made to improve the persuasiveness of nutrition marketing in promoting fruit and vegetable consumption.
Created2018-12
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Description
Objective: To conduct a content analysis of nutrition marketing in school cafeterias in Arizona to understand how nutrition concepts are currently marketed to students. This is the first study to investigate the content of nutrition marketing in school cafeterias, and also the first to compare content across elementary, middle, and

Objective: To conduct a content analysis of nutrition marketing in school cafeterias in Arizona to understand how nutrition concepts are currently marketed to students. This is the first study to investigate the content of nutrition marketing in school cafeterias, and also the first to compare content across elementary, middle, and high schools. Methods: Photographs of marketing materials on display in school cafeterias were obtained from a convenient sample of 13 elementary schools, 12 middle schools, and 12 high schools. In total, n=284 examples of nutrition marketing were collected. The photographs were sorted by grade level and then coded quantitatively and qualitatively based on their purpose, visual aspects, marketing strategies used, and language and literacy aspects. Given the multiple comparisons, statistical significance was assessed with a Bonferroni adjustment of p<0.0006. Results: The average number of nutrition marketing materials within the school cafeterias was 7.7 ± 7.2. The purpose of the marketing materials ranged from promoting selection and consumption of fruits and vegetables, promoting nutrition and physical activity together, food safety, and educating about healthy eating. The sample of nutrition marketing materials emphasized selecting F/Vs over consumption of F/Vs. However, the opposite was found in marketing that exclusively promoted fruits and vegetables. The most common type of marketing in school cafeterias were flyers and most of the materials were small in size. The sample demonstrated a lack of implementation of marketing appeals in half of the sample, but the half that did utilized techniques that are known to be appealing to child and adolescent demographics, such as use of cartoons, humor, and social media/websites. 98.9% of the nutrition marketing with text were written in English and only 1.1% of the materials (n=3) were written in Spanish. Conclusion: The nutrition marketing sample demonstrated some use of social marketing principles but does not compete with the scale and scope of the child-directed food and beverage marketing that students encounter in their environment. More research is needed to better understand how to best target nutrition marketing to child and adolescent student populations.
ContributorsXavier, Raevyn Francine (Author) / Bruening, Meg (Thesis advisor) / Adams, Marc (Committee member) / Lorts, Cori (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021