Nutrition label use in college students: An examination of predictors, the impact of label placement, and the relationship between label use and dietary quality

This dissertation consists of six chapters assessing the prevalence, correlates, and dietary impact of label usage in college students. Chapter 1 provides a summary and overall of the theoretical basis for this work. Chapter 2 reviews predictors of nutrition label usage and estimates an overall prevalence of label usage in college students based on 16 studies. Here we report an overall nutrition label usage prevalence from pooling studies, and correlates of usage. Chapter 3 reviews the relationship between nutrition label use and dietary quality in 25 studies in college students, with a special focus on setting. We report on the impact of label presence or use by setting, dietary outcome, and by the type of labels used. Chapter 4 reports our empirical results of the impact of label location on label awareness and usage in a dining hall setting. Additionally, we also examined the most preferred pieces of nutrition information and reasons for label non-use. Chapter 5 focuses on the coding system we developed for analyzing food selection and intake using digital photography. We measured selection, servings, and consumption of food categories suggested by Dietary Guidelines for Americans within university students in a self-serve dining hall setting. We also report our inter- and intra-rater agreement. Chapter 6 uses the digital photography and coding system developed in Chapter 5 to assess the impact of nutrition label usage on diners' selection and consumption. We had the advantage of combining survey data with dietary intake data to assess the relationship between dietary intake and nutrition label usage. Here we report on how label users and non-users meals differed in terms of selection, servings, and consumption