Table 2 Perceived barriers to healthy eating among university students in Kuwait by gender
Barriers | Men (N = 203) | Women (N = 327) | P value | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Very imp (%) | S. imp (%) | Not imp (%) | Very imp (%) | S. imp (%) | Not imp (%) | ||
Personal and environmental barriers to healthy eating | |||||||
1. Do not have enough information about a healthy diet | 20.2 | 37.9 | 41.9 | 15.3 | 41.0 | 43.7 | 0.341 |
2. Do not have motivation to eat healthy diet | 18.2 | 40.40 | 41.4 | 16.8 | 40.4 | 42.8 | 0.903 |
3. Do not enjoy eating healthy foods | 24.6 | 41.4 | 34.0 | 16.8 | 42.5 | 40.7 | 0.068 |
4. Do not have skills to plan, shop for, prepare or cook healthy foods | 24.6 | 44.3 | 31.0 | 24.2 | 45.9 | 29.9 | 0.940 |
5. Do not have access to healthy foods | 24.1 | 34.0 | 41.9 | 19.6 | 37.9 | 42.5 | 0.413 |
6. Not able to buy healthy foods that are inexpensive | 11.8 | 24.6 | 63.6 | 7.6 | 19.3 | 73.1 | 0.058 |
Social barriers to healthy eating | |||||||
1. No parent’s support to eat healthy diet | 13.8 | 23.2 | 63.0 | 11.9 | 19.9 | 68.2 | 0.477 |
2. No friend’s support to eat healthy diet | 20.2 | 33.0 | 46.8 | 18.3 | 31.8 | 49.9 | 0.771 |
3. No teacher’s support to eat healthy diet | 25.6 | 26.6 | 47.8 | 19.6 | 29.1 | 51.3 | 0.261 |
4. Not having time to prepare or eat healthy foods because of university commitment | 31.5 | 35.0 | 33.5 | 42.5 | 34.3 | 23.2 | 0.012 |