Factors Affecting the Consumption of Fast Foods Among Women Based on the Social Cognitive Theory

Abstract

Introduction: Fast-food consumption among Iranian families appears to be increasing probably due to urbanization, popularization of western-style diets and increased women's labor force participation. Few theory-based investigations have assessed the determinants of fast food consumption. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the predictors of fast food consumption, based on the social cognitive theory (SCT) among women referred to health centers in Hamadan, Western of Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted using structured selfadministered questionnaires on 384 women referred to 10 health centers in Hamadan city, Western of Iran. Health center was considered as a sampling unit and systematic random sampling method was applied to select health centers. Participants filled a questionnaire containing SCT constructs, an eight-item food frequency questionnaire, and demographic characteristics. Data was analyzed by independent T-test, one-way ANOVA, and multiple linear regression using SPSS-16. Results: The model could explain 21% of the variance in frequency of fast food consumption. Outcome expectations (p=0.04) and availability (p<0.001) were the significant predictors. The career status of women was the only related demographic characteristic (p<0.001). Conclusions: Interventions aimed to change outcome expectations and introducing nutritious alternatives to fast food could be promising to decrease the rate of fast-food consumption.

The Effect of a Social Cognitive Theory-Based Intervention on Fast Food Consumption Among Students

“…It increased the mean score of value expectations in the intervention group. These findings were consistent with the results of the study by Beiranvandpour (13). Outcome expectancy is another aspect of SCT investigated in the current study.…”

“…data collection tools used in the current study were students' demographic information including age, weight, height, mother's education and occupation, father's occupation, household aspect, and economic status. To evaluate fast food consumption rate and SCT aspects, the Beiranvandpour questionnaire including fast food consumption frequency in the past week (8 items), nutritional knowledge (5 items), value expectancy (8 items), outcome expectancy (8 items), and self-efficacy (7 items) was used (13).…”

The Effect of Education on Increase Breakfast Consumption Among Female Students Based on Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)

“…Based on this theory, changes in behavior are affected from the complex interaction that called "reciprocal determinism", which happens between individual, environmental factors and especial characteristics of a behavior. This theory has been successfully employed in various nutritional behaviors such as eating snacks (22,23), fast food (24,25), and breakfast (16,26). For example, studies of Salimi et al, showed that variables of this theory could explain 64% of the variance of eating breakfast among female students.…”