Abstract:

College students of nutrition play an important role in prevention by giving nutrition education and advice on healthy nutrition of community after graduation. Self –efficacy also is a principle connection between knowledge and action since the belief that one can do a behavior usually occurs before one actually attempts the behavior. To assess the impact of nutrition education course on the perceived self-efficacy of college students of nutrition to use an ecological approach to educate community, a quasi-experimental design was used.
68 college students of nutrition (n=34 intervention group, n=34 comparison group) participated in this study. A 12 week, nutrition education course applied for intervention group. Changes in skills, and perceived self-efficacy in using an ecological approach to educate community were analyzed using Paired and independent sample t tests, factor analysis, and regression analysis.
In contrast to comparison group, students who participated in a 12-week nutrition education course had statistically significant increases (P < .01) in their skills, and perceived self-efficacy related to using an ecological approach to educate community. A nutrition education course can be effective at increasing the skills, and perceived self-efficacy of college student of nutrition in using an ecological approach to educate their communities.

Keywords:

Perceived self-efficacy, nutrition education, college student.