Vending machines and university students’ consumption trends

Abstract

This work aimed at examination of consumption frequency, body weight, degree of satisfaction and food habits of vending machine users by interviewing 620 university students from the Gran Canaria Island, Spain, and Monte de Caparica, Portugal. A questionnaire was completed by participants, which gathered data on degree course and year, age, sex, weight, height and also the frequency of use of vending machines, the most consumed foods, level of satisfaction and new proposals for food to be provided by the machines. The most notable result was that the majority of the student population used food vending machines, and more than a half (50.8 %) used machines occasionally, i. e. once a week or less frequently. In general, the Spanish study population showed a higher prevalence for overweight (20.4 %) and obesity (3.2 %) compared with the Portuguese one (7.0 % for overweight and 0.8 % for obesity). It should also be noted that the daily use of vending machines was greater in Spain (13.4 %) than in Portugal (3.9 %). These findings could be used to improve dietary behaviour in university students in Spain and Portugal, if we take into account that many students consume or replace food with vending machine food daily or several times per week.