An exploratory social media intervention for perception and behavior on eating away from home: A cluster randomized trial in Chongqing, China

A modern diet with high energy density is harmful to health and negatively affects the environment. Eating out is particularly prevalent among young adults and has steadily increased in many countries over the last few decades. This study aims to assess the impact of nutrition education interventions on social media on cognitive and behavioral changes in the diet of university students. A cluster-randomized trial with an intervention group (n = 853) and a no-intervention control group (n = 846) was conducted in Chongqing. A two-month educational intervention was conducted through social media (WeChat official account, Sina Weblog, and Tencent Weibo) with participants of the intervention group. Self-reported eating-out-related knowledge and behaviors were assessed at baseline and six and eight months after randomization. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression and linear regression analyses accessed the outcomes between the intervention and control groups. The proportion of participants in the high-level knowledge and attitude group in the intervention group increased by 13% and 8.5% compared with the control group (p < 0.05). The effects of the intervention on the outcomes significantly changed over time, as demonstrated by the achieved statistical significance for knowledge and attitude score (p for group and time interaction