Description
Nutrition, physical activity, and obesity has recently been named a major public health concern in the United States.. On average, 70% of college students gain roughly 12 – 37 pounds during their college career. Within the first year of college, 30% of students become medically obese. Despite nutritional recommendations offered, research demonstrates that only 7% of young adults and college students comply with nutritional recommendations. To aid communication efforts seeking to reduce this health challenge among college students, this study tested the credibility of message source in a targeted message toward college students. The sources included local (San Diego State University), state (California Department of Public Health), and federal (CDC) organizations. The tailored health messages are guided by the health belief model (HBM). In order to test the hypothesized relationships, undergraduate students were recruited (n = 326) for a 3 X 2 online pre-/post-test quasi-experimental design with random group assignment. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed using SPSS (v25), the results of which found no statistically significant differences between each message source. Implications for communication-based nutrition efforts are explored. Keywords: message source; college students; tailored-messages; health belief model
