Drivers of food choice, meal pattern, and lifestyle habits among undergraduate students in Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

Background and objective: Food choice is a complex human behavior, which is influenced by many interdependent factors. University students are exposed to unhealthy eating habits and poor dietary intake. This could be attributable to the independent food choices made. This study assessed the drivers of food choice, patterns, and lifestyle habits of undergraduate students at Lead City University Ibadan, Nigeria. Method: The study adopted a cross-sectional design and a multistage random sampling technique to select 200 respondents. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, eating habits, and dietary practices were obtained using a self-administered questionnaire. Results: The mean age of the students was 21 ± 2 years, 46% of the students ate three meals daily, 36% skipped breakfast daily and 17% consumed alcohol. The main drivers of food choice among the students were sensory appeal in which taste (79%), pleasant texture (54%), and nice smell (54%) of food were considered very important. Concerning health and natural food content, the respondents considered good feeling (74%), weight control (48%), no additives (46%), low-fat content (42%), and low-calorie content (35%) as very important associated factors. Good value for money (53%), not expensive (42%), and easy availability (49%) were very important economic factors for driving food choices among respondents. Conclusion: Sensory appeal, health and natural food content, and price and purchase


INTRODUCTION
Food which includes a combination of micro and macronutrients is a necessity of life. Food choice is a complex human behavior that is influenced by a lot of interdependent elements ranging from biological mechanisms and hereditary susceptibility to social and cultural factors (Hauser, Jonas, and Riemann 2011). The organoleptic features of food such as taste, smell, texture, and appearance can play a significant role in food choice. The presence of such characteristics influences the drivers of food consumption. The way a person perceives these characteristics is the final path that will lead to intake of food intake (Lupi et al. 2015).
Diet quality changes occur during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood which results in young adults often not meeting the recommended dietary guide-lines (Winpenny et al. 2018). The diet of most US university students was found to be lacking in vegetables, fruits as well as dairy foods but high in sodium, sugar, and fat (Brunt and Rhee 2008). They also have limited food selection, high consumption of fast foods, and frequency of snacking as well as constant meal skipping thereby leading to weight loss.
In young adults, the influences on food choice vary from sensory perception to their socioeconomic status and personality. Oftentimes, financial constraints and lack of adequate knowledge of healthy food selections could influence the eating habits and dietary intake of young adults (Deliens et al. 2014). College students are often faced with academic responsibilities such as tests, fieldwork, assignments, term papers, etc. which might lead to stress, and modifications in their eating lifestyles. Likewise, students eating behavior may be influenced by campus activities like corresponding author: abimbola.ogundele@stu.mmu.ac.uk a OGUNDELE, Abimbola Eniola, Elizabeth Oluwafolakemi ALERU, Ifeoluwa Omolara BODUNDE, and Oluwadamilola Elizabeth GBENRO. 2023. "Drivers of Food Choice, Meal Pattern, and Lifestyle Habits among Undergraduate Students in Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria." World Nutrition, June, 66-74. https://doi.org/10.26596/wn.202314266-78. recreational, religious, and student society activities as well as exams and changes in accommodation (Deliens et al. 2014;Kremmyda et al. 2008;Jessop, Herberts, and Solomon 2005). For instance, students may choose to purchase food during lecture breaks at the university cafeteria where food choices are limited (Lee and Loke 2005).
A lot of students are not aware of the nutritional values of food. Some of them avoid specific foods as a result of personal dislike, peer group influence, social and cultural pressure, religion, etc. A study in Malaysia found that lack of information on nutritional requirements was the major issue encountered by students (Gan et al. 2011). In a Greek study, most of the students lacked adequate funds or diverted their feeding allowance to other activities, which led to skipping meals (Papadakos et al. 2007). Very little research has been done on drivers of food choice among university students in Nigeria, and none at Lead City University. Therefore, we explored meal patterns, dietary intake of undergraduate students and evaluated the factors that often predisposed them to unhealthy dietary lifestyles.

METHODOLOGY STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING
This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among undergraduate students at Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Lead City University is a private university located in the toll-gate area of Ibadan, Oyo State. Ibadan is the capital and largest city in Oyo state. It is located in South-Western Nigeria. It is reputed to be the largest indigenous city in Africa, south of the Sahara and is the center of administration of the old Western Region (Adefisan, Bayo, and Ropo 2015).

ETHICAL APPROVAL
This study was conducted based on the ethical standards for human participation (Fletcher 2015). Approval was obtained from Lead City University. Respondents who agreed to participate in the study signed a consent form before the commencement of this research work.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE AND SAMPLE SIZE DETERMINATION
A multistage sampling technique was used to select respondents for this study. Of the five faculties in Lead City University at the time of this study, two faculties (the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Medical and Applied Sciences) were purposively selected being the two largest faculties in the school. In Stage 2, of the ten departments at the time of data collection, four departments were randomly selected from these two faculties through the balloting technique. From each department, students were selected to participate in the study using the simple random technique. Based on the student population from each department, a total of 217 students filled the questionnaires, out of which 15 questionnaires had incomplete information and 2 were poorly filled out, leaving 200 valid responses that were analyzed for this study.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
The research instrument used for data collection was selfadministered questionnaires. A food choices questionnaire adopted from Fotopolous et al. (2009) was used to collect information on the drivers of food choices. Information on socio-demographic characteristics, dietary practices, and eating habits was also obtained using the self-administered questionnaire. The questions on dietary practices and eating habits included the number of meals per day, source of usual meals, meal time, meal skipping pattern, smoking, and alcohol consumption habits.
Following the verification of the students' identities through the use of their student identity cards, the questionnaire was distributed to selected students at the respective faculties. The questionnaire was then collected back at the point of administration as soon as the students had finished filling it out.
Data were analyzed using SPSS statistical package version 24 for descriptive (such as frequencies and percentages) and inferential statistics (T-test). The level of significance was set at p<0.05. Table 1 illustrates the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents. The majority (67%) were females. Most were between the ages of 19-21 years (36%) and 22-24 years (25%). The vast majority (96%) of the respondents were single.

MEAL PATTERN
The meal pattern of the students is presented in Table 2. Almost half (46%) of the students ate three meals daily. A majority (71%) consumed both self-prepared and purchased meals. Table 3 more than half (53%) of the respondents sometimes skipped breakfast, while 36% skipped breakfast every day. 31% skipped lunch every day while 21% stated that they had never skipped lunch. Almost half (44%) indicated that they sometimes skipped afternoon snacks 41% specified that they skipped dinner every day. When it comes to the lifestyle habits of the respondents, 97% did not smoke tobacco and 83% did not consume alcohol. Table 4 presents the drivers of food choice among respondents. The taste of food (79%), the pleasant texture of food (54%), and the nice smell of food (54%) were very important sensory appeal drivers to the respondents. The health and Drivers of food choice, meal pattern, and lifestyle habits among undergraduate students in Lead City University, Ibadan,... natural content important to the respondents include good feeling (74%), weight control (48%), no additives (46%), low in fat (42%), and low in calories (35%). The result further showed that respondents considered good value for money (53%), inexpensive characteristics (42%), and availability (49%) as very important economic factors. Concerning preparation convenience, easy cooking (36%), not timeconsuming (34%), and easy to prepare (32%) were very important factors. Although, 29% stated that easy cooking, not time-consuming (27%), and easy to prepare (25%) were moderately important factors. Based on familiarity, 50% preferred familiar foods, and 38% would select foods habitually. 44% of the respondents regarded food eaten in childhood as an unimportant factor in making a food choice. Some of the respondents considered foods that help cope with stress (43%) and help with relaxation (51%) to be very important considerations for food choices. Food packed in an environmentally sustainable manner was considered very important by 69% of the respondents.

DISCUSSION
Late adolescence is a phase of life characterized by rapid growth and development leading to increased total nutrient need, as well as a transition from parent-led food consumption to self-led food consumption. Dietary intake among this group is therefore usually sub-optimal (Aslam and Durrani 2018). Hence, this study aimed at identifying the drivers of food choice, meal patterns, and lifestyle habits among undergraduate students at Lead City University Ibadan, Nigeria.
Students displayed similar patterns to those reported in previous studies showing that adolescents preferred selfprepared meals (Dohle, Rall, and Siegrist 2014;Banna et al. 2020) and consumed mostly two meals per day, mainly skipping breakfast (Wennberg et al. 2014; Díaz-Torrente and Quintiliano-Scarpelli 2020; Shiyam et al. 2021). Breakfast consumption is an indicator of a healthy lifestyle (Díaz-Torrente and Quintiliano-Scarpelli 2020); however, studies have shown that it is the most skipped meal among young Drivers of food choice, meal pattern, and lifestyle habits among undergraduate students in Lead City University, Ibadan,...   Burns et al. 2018). On the other hand, skipping breakfast is a predisposing factor for overweight and obesity, headaches, depression, and some metabolic diseases such as diabetes (Ardeshirlarijani et al. 2019;Zhu et al. 2019;Mansouri et al. 2018;Shiyam et al. 2021;Mansouri et al. 2021). Skipping breakfast is also associated with a reduction in daily diet quality (Zeballos and Todd 2020) Breakfast skipping is not the only culprit for health challenges, however. Skipping a meal affects total daily energy intake and affects general food consumption, thereby re-ducing the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) (Zeballos and Todd 2020). Next common after breakfast skipping is lunch skipping. A reduction in tonic alertness in children is associated with skipping lunch (Müller et al. 2013). Similarly, among college-aged students, skipping lunch is associated with a reduction in cognitive abilities (Datta et al. 2020). This present study revealed that over three-quarters of respondents skipped lunch. Many times, dinner is skipped in a bid to lose weight and Zeballos and Todd (2020) found that this did not really affect diet quality. However, it also has no effect on weight reduction; in fact, it has been found to be a significant predictor of overweight and obesity (Pot, Hardy, and Stephen 2015;Yamamoto et al. 2021). Contrary Drivers of food choice, meal pattern, and lifestyle habits among undergraduate students in Lead City University, Ibadan,...

World Nutrition
to the research findings earlier mentioned, Yamamoto et al. (2021) stated that compared to breakfast, skipping dinner has a more significant impact on weight gain. The weight gain was associated with possible excess energy intake due to the upregulation of appetite after skipping dinner (Yamamoto et al. 2021) Substance use is common among university students (A. B. Makanjuola, Daramola, and Obembe 2007;Atwoli et al. 2011;Osman et al. 2016) and can negatively impact the users' health, educational and professional lifestyle, as well as their families (Babalola, Ogunwale, and Akinhanmi 2013;A. Makanjuola, Abiodun, and Sajo 2014;Ohale et al. 2017;Mekonen et al. 2017;Ayalew, Tafere, and Asmare 2018). Tobacco and alcohol are usually the most commonly consumed (Heydari et al. 2015;Osman et al. 2016) and serve as a gateway to other substances (Babalola, Ogunwale, and Akinhanmi 2013;A. Makanjuola, Abiodun, and Sajo 2014). We recorded a low consumption of tobacco in our sample (3%) while alcohol intake was 17%. A study by Heydari et al. (2015) found a 13% prevalence of the consumption of alcohol among studied participants but tobacco use compared to this study was higher. Among students in tertiary universities in Imo State, Nigeria, tobacco was the most consumed among substance in both lifetime (50.3%) and current (48%) use (Ohale et al. 2017). Similarly, among undergraduate students in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, alcohol was the most consumed (60.8%) (Donald 2017) and in Port Harcourt, 25.9% were alcohol consumers, and 55.3% were tobacco consumers (Okechukwu et al. 2021). Among Kenyan first-year university students, current use of alcohol and tobacco was 22% and 7% respectively (Musyoka et al. 2020). The low consumption recorded in this study is most likely a result of the fact that substance use is not the primary outcome of this study; therefore, details of substance use were not probed for.
Making food choices goes beyond filling the stomach and nourishing the body but involves complex decisions (Marsola et al. 2020). It is usually dependent on a wide range of factors including price, rewards, lifestyle, health status, family, dietary component, safety and freshness, convenience, seasonally fresh local foods, and sensory appeal. (Vilaro et al. 2018;Boatemaa, Badasu, and de-Graft Aikins 2018;Marsola et al. 2020;Moraes et al. 2020;Zhang and Jakku 2020;Guiné et al. 2021;Powell et al. 2022). This study revealed that sensory appeal especially taste, health and natural content especially good feeling, price and purchase convenience, especially value for the price, preparation convenience, familiarity with food, mood, and ethical concerns were all very important drivers of food choice among respondents. Gender, sensory appeal, price and purchase convenience, and ethical concerns were statistically significant, with scores higher among females. This is similar to findings by Vilaro et al. 2018;Marsola et al. 2020;Guiné et al. 2021. Contrariwise, Boek et al. (2012 found drivers were significantly higher among males especially cost, taste, and food quality. Health and natural content were not statistically significant as a driver for both gender groups, similar to Vilaro et al. 2018. The sensory appeal was the leading driver of food choice among study participants, especially females. Previous studies (Carrillo et al. 2011;Marsola et al. 2020) documented similar results. Next after sensory appeal was convenience and price, similar to Boatemaa, Badasu, and de-Graft Aikins 2018. This study has a number of limitations. First, the involvement of only two faculties in the university, as well as the small sample size can affect the generalizability of the results of this study for the whole university community. Secondly, there is the possibility of bias due to self-reported responses and the purposive selection of two faculties.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION
The findings of this study are relevant for health promotion and behavior change interventions among this group of university student respondents. The health and natural content of food was not a significant driver of food choice among respondents, which is likely an indicator of poor knowledge, attitude, and practice of nutrition among respondents. This, therefore, opens up the opportunity for nutrition education as the nutritional quality of food and attitude towards its product cannot be overemphasized. Breakfast was the meal least consumed among respondents; therefore, it is recommended that cafeterias focus on breakfast preparations that can be set up within the school premises in locations easily accessible to students, facilitating breakfast consumption on the go on the way to their lectures.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare no conflict of interest. Drivers of food choice, meal pattern, and lifestyle habits among undergraduate students in Lead City University, Ibadan,...