Publication: The influence of social media food trends on food choices among undergraduate students at the school of health sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia Health Campus
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Date
2026-01
Authors
Jamari, Nurul Jazmina
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Abstract
Social media profoundly reshapes food perceptions among university students, necessitating a critical quantitative investigation into its influence on 351 undergraduate health science students in Malaysia who are expected to maintain higher health literacy. The study aimed to quantify the exposure and effect of social media food trends on food choices and to identify the main affected food-choice attributes, utilizing a cross-sectional design with statistical tests to compare influence groups. The results determined that 48.7% of the sample showed Moderate Engagement with food-related content. A statistically significant difference was found in eight food-choice characteristics across influence groups, where the High Influence group valued these factors more, while Price remained consistently high across all groups without significant differences. Crucially, when ranking influential factors, Sensory Appeal was the characteristic of Highest Importance, significantly outweighing health-focused variables such as Health and Convenience. This high prioritization of hedonic factors over health-based ones necessitates targeted health promotion programs to improve the digital media literacy and health-wise decision-making of health science students.
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