Fast food consumption of students and factors affecting consumption: a case study from Isparta University of Applied Sciences, Turkey

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to determine fast food consumption and the factors affecting this consumption for Isparta University of Applied Sciences students. The main material of the study consisted of the data obtained from surveys, which were conducted by face-to-face interviews with 384 students. Result showed that 89.06% of the students consumed fast food and 10.94% did not. The average monthly income of students was 1412.26 TL and the share of expenditure on fast food products in the monthly income was 21.25%. It was determined that students consumed steak tartar ala turca (85.96%) among the fast food products, followed by French fries (83.63%) and hamburger (82.75%). It was found that 42.69% of the students consumed fast food products in dinner. It was determined that the most important reasons for fast food consumption were being economical (38.60%) and fast (30.70%). The relationship between the age of the students (p <0.10), the number of individuals in the family (p <0.10) and their opinion about healthy-eating (p <0.01) and fast food consumption were found to be statistically significant.