Factors affecting dietary supplement consumption among Beirut 12th-grade and college students; Using a theory-based intervention to improve dietary supplement knowledge

النوع : Mémoire

Health and lifestyle behaviors continue to change, as family structures, more than acquiring knowledge to adopt new roles in target groups. Providing knowledge alone is ineffective to initiate and address health and related social problems in a target group. They can provide essential knowledge through designing health intervention using some conceptual framework to guide the content and strategies used. The aim of this study was to assess general information about the factors associated with dietary-supplement use among college students and to evaluate the effectiveness of the theory-based concept map intervention on students’ achievement regarding the dietary supplements topic. A quantitative study was used as a cross-sectional design and a quasi-experimental study depending mainly on the pretest/posttest design where a concept of intervention mapping was employed as a healthy training intervention in the setting of a scientific-nutrition course. Findings have proven that many factors reveal a crucial effect on dietary supplements’ use. Although dietary supplements’ knowledge perception and health beliefs do not differ between the two genders, mastering acquired knowledge, self-scientific reasoning, and planning appear to be mediators for the desired students’ health achievement in the experimental design. Dietary supplements’ consumption among Lebanese young adults has recorded increasing outcomes, associated with obesity problems. Effective theory-guided health intervention programs, especially the ones with practical behavioral tools, are needed to help promote desirable nutrition and other health behaviors. The findings of this intervention study underline the usefulness of implementing planning strategies in health intervention in the future. With high hope, this study aims to contribute in strengthening the science of health promotion in Lebanon.