Fast Food Habit among University Students

Syahidatul Azwar binti Ahmad* azwarahmad07@yahoo.com Nur Syafawati binti Jusoh @ Yusof sya_fa90@yahoo.com Tengku Nurul Liyana binti Tengku Izaham liyana_tengku@yahoo.coms Nazrina Aziz nazrina@uum.edu.my Department of Mathematics and Statistics School of Quantitative Science Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06100 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia

Abstract The fast food industry in Malaysia is facing increasingly competitive challenges as with other industries around the world. The purpose of this study was to estimate university student perceptions of various factors affecting towards fast food habit. Questionnaires were distributed to 140 undergraduate students in the university where 121 (86.43%) students responded to the survey. The study of this research applies independent sample t test and oneway ANOVA. Among the six dimensions tested, fast food provider need to focus on the main factor that causes the university students craving more frequently to eat fast food. The originality of research; estimates university student perceptions of various factors affecting towards fast food habit. Keywords: Perception, Fast foods, Factor analysis, University students Paper type: Research paper

Introduction Fast food From onion rings to double cheeseburgers, fast food is the one of the worlds fastest growing food types. Fast foods are quick, reasonably price and readily available alternatives to home cooked food. With todays hectic lifestyles, time saving products are increasingly in demand. Perhaps one of the most obvious examples is fast food. Today the demand for the, hectic lifestyles, time saving products are increasingly. Obliviously one of the examples is fast food industry. The rate of growth in consumer expenditures on fast food has led most other segments of the food-away-from home market for much of the last two decades.

Since 1982, there is growth rate in consumer spending at fast food. The consumers spent at fast food outlets grew at an annually the proportion of away-from-home food expenditures on fast food also increased. Now, people want quick and convenient meals because they do not want to spend a lot of time preparing meals, traveling to pick up meals or waiting for meals in restaurants. That result, consumers rely frequently on fast food outlets such as KFC, McDonald, Pizza Hut and Marrybrown. Knowing this fast food providers are coming up with new ways to market their products that save time for consumers. The rapid rate at which the fast food industry continues to add outlets is as much a reflection of consumer demand for convenience as it is a reflection of demand for fast food itself. The objectives of this exploratory study are as follows: Objectives of the study To identify the different between gender in fast food habit To identify the factors affecting the choice of university students for fast food. To study the consumption pattern towards fast food particularly with respect to the frequency of visits and choice of fast food outlets. To study the relationship between factors affecting towards fast food habit with expenses. To identify the current perceived enjoys eating fast food towards amongst university students.

History of fast food in Malaysia In 1980s, Marrybrown Family Restaurant became the first local fast food chain to franchise its business system in Malaysia. This has allowed the fast food chain to grow at a speedy rate while maintaining its service and food quality. Marrybrown is also one of the earliest local franchises which expand their business overseas. It is said that their current oversea business is more popular than the local business. In the earlier stage, many of the earlier success stories in Malaysia franchise business involved foreign companies like McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut and few others. Moreover, McDonald's are in Malaysia got our first taste of McDonald's when McDonald's Malaysia opened its first restaurant at Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur on 29 April 1982. To date, McDonald's Malaysia has more than 200 restaurants located nationwide and is currently expanding at about 20-25 restaurants annually and employs more than 12,000 local people. Furthermore, the first KFC restaurant was opened in 1973 on Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman. Today, there are more than 390 KFC restaurants nationwide and still counting. KFC Holdings Bhd, a publicly-listed company in the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE), also holds the franchise for Pizza Hut and Seattle's Best Coffee. In total, KFC Holdings Bhd controls over 60% of the fast food market in Malaysia. Great tasting chicken has become synonymous with KFC and has been enjoyed by Malaysians ever since. The top performers in the fast food segment are KFC, followed by McDonalds, and Pizza Hut. They are undergoing dramatic transformations and experiencing highest competition to attract consumer by various type of foods that describes their own brand.

Literature review The main methodology used is by surveys, of which the participants were selected via sampling. The variable definitions asked included the respondents age, race, financial source and expenses per month apart from the initial question of where lunch was purchased at. Food choice in a time scarce environment relies on the quality, cost, sustainability for lunch or dinner, services, cleanliness and knowledge about diet diseases. The factors vary per individual and thus qualitative research on the choice of food stresses the importance of negotiating the right value amongst the factors. The conceptual definition of fast food and their dimensions According to Anita Goyal and N. P Singh, the purpose of the article is to estimate importance of various factors affecting the choice of fast food outlets by Indian young consumers. Through the survey they set the questionnaires based on the demographics of the respondent such as age, qualification and marital status. Factors affecting selection of fast food outlet it based on behavior of visiting fast food outlets and based on provision of information sharing on various items such as nutrition, hygiene condition and so on. Fast food has been defined by Bender and Bender (1995) as general term used for a limited menu of foods that lend themselves to production line techniques; supplier tent to specialize in products such as hamburgers, pizzas, chicken or sandwiches. Globalization of the fast food and other modern food sectors is beginning to affect eating patterns in several countries thereby undergoing nutrition transition (Adair and Popkin, 2005). Besides, fast food is a term given to food that can be prepared and served quickly. The important reason students chose fast food are because of speed, convenience and price. However, fast food has many hidden costs, including the high price of bad health. So, the real reason is not the price, but convenience. According to the study of Kara et al. (1995), the consumers in the age of 12 to 24 years look for variety, price, delivery service and location in America and for price and novelties in Canada. In the age groups of 46 years to above 55 years cleanliness, nutritional value, quality and taste are considered by Americans and preference is given to nutritional value and seating capacity by Canadians in identifying fast food restaurants. In the middle age group of 25 to 45 years, Americans preferred for speed and friendly personnel whereas Canadians looked for speed, quality and service. Everyone likes to eat the food that can be eaten in a short time. According to Bowman, those who eat fast foods and drink sugary, carbonated soft drinks generally consume more calories, fats, carbohydrates, added sugars and proteins than those who do not. Then, according to the study of McNeal et al (1980), respondents felt that meals were moderately nutritious and a good food buy, but they were fattening and contained harmful additives. Fast food is unhealthy since consumers most of the time order food with more fat, calories, sugar and sodium and less nutrition and vitamins than is necessary. It may be considered unhealthy too if the person consumes too much of them, including the super size option. Food consumption in fast food restaurants was associated with higher energy and fat intake among adolescents (French et al., 2001). Study on the Asian population showed that excessive consumption of fast foods, which are nutritionally imbalanced, could adversely affect health and enhances the vulnerability to degenerative disease (Mahna et al., 2004). According to Mayo Clinic, being overweight or obese, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease can lead to an increased risk for stroke. Moreover, when eat so much fast food, it will cause weight gain. Fatty foods such as fast food cheeseburgers and fried menu item carry heavy calorie loads with perhaps 1000 calories or more in a meal, as per the USDA Nutrient Database. If you dont burn as many calories as you consume,

youll gain weight. If you become obese or achieve a body mass index of 30 or greater, the bad effects may include respiratory and reproductive problems, arthritis, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Besides, excessive sodium and cholesterol levels have bad effects on the blood vessels, elevating blood pressure and gradually reducing the interior space with plaque buildup, known as atherosclerosis.

Methodology Sampling unit Samples for this study consisted of university student in the age group of 20 to 25 years. Convenience sample are drawn from northern region among university students. Convenience in our definition include only one dimension that is easy access to the sample units that using systematic sampling technique which is room numbers as a variable. This segment of population was selected because it is easy to perform in the field and hence less subject to selection errors, especially when a good frame not available. This technique also can provide greater information per unit cost than simple random sampling. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Data were collected from the targeted room that from the same residential hall. Questionnaires were handed over to them with a request for filling the spot that were provided. Due care has been taken to reduce a possible biases in selecting the room for the purpose of data collection by way of asking few questions to them in relation with eating habits and demographic profile. In addition, a thorough analysis had been done for each filled in questionnaire to see the consistency of data provided by targeted room specifically for student who stay in the room with their friends. In such cases many question had been rejected by the authors because invalid numbers of mark. Some questionnaires were not being considered worthy for analyses. The questionnaire had the following dimensions: demographic of respondent such as gender, age, semester and race factors affecting selection of fast food restaurants comparison on various parameters such as quality or brand, cost, sustainability for lunch or dinner, services and cleanliness also testing about knowledge about diet disease

Sample size Since it is an exploratory study, a sample size of 140 thought to be adequate one. Accordingly 140 respondents from population on room selection were approached to fill in the questionnaire. Out of 140 respondents only 121 respondents data were valid. Selection of fast food restaurants In the northern part of Malaysia, there only several fast food restaurant been operated such as McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut and Marrybrown were been selected as mentioned in the introduction. However, as we thoroughly analyze we can see the sample of the study not many of them were customers of Marrybrown. Sampling technique In our research we use systematic sampling, as we mentioned above in sampling unit. In this part we will explain more about the technique that we use. We choose this technique because for us it is much easier and we can cut cost of our research because we only distribute the

questionnaire to the selected room in Yayasan Al-Bukhary Student Residential Hall (YAB). In YAB, the block is divided into two block that is for male and female. Each block contains 390 rooms that mean 780 rooms that start with room number 101. We determine the maximum value of sampling interval by dividing 780 with 140 (number of questionnaire) and we get the interval, k for the equation is equal to 5.5714. We can see here that the population is not evenly divisible. If we start with the room number 110, there will a risk where the last room chosen does not exist. On the other hand if we chosen room number 105, the last 80 rooms will never be selected. The random starting point should instead be selected as a noninteger between 0 and 5.5714, to ensure that every room has equal chance of being selected; the interval should be rounded up.

Methods of data analysis Data were a statistical analysis such as descriptive analysis and frequency distribution. This analysis was applicable to mainly categorized data. For scaled data, reliability analysis is applied before subjecting the data for testing using ANOVA and carrying out factors analysis. The reliability analysis was done with a view to identify inconsistencies in the data set. To make a comparison of ratings, ANOVA was carried out to the mean scores of two group of gender that are male and female. Through, the exploratory study does not consist of large number of variables bit still the data were subjected to factor analysis as one of the most used tool for this data analysis. It explains the association occurring between scale level responses.

Results and discussion The food habit among the university student had been affected by many elements such as environment at home, educational environment, availability and accessibility to fast food restaurant and social environment in their surroundings area. Even though their knowledge of nutritional level is higher but they enjoy most of their time eat fast food because for them fast food taste good, cheap, fast and easy to access. This can be proven by the data that we been collected said that most of them enjoy eating fast food equivalent to 63.6%. This shows that that they are not afraid of eating fast food although they know the long term side effect. The results of data analysis with respect to these issues of fast food habits behaviour among university students are presented in the following subsections. Demographic of the respondent Data were collected with the respect to three demographic of university students, i.e gender (male and female), semester (2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) and age (20 25 years). After doing some rigorous analysis, we found out that most of them are from semester 4(54.5%). It means that there were not many variations in case of semester. However, there 48.8% were male and 51.2% were female that do not make a significant difference either way. Consumer behaviour with the respect to timing of visits, preference of a particular fast food restaurant and factors that affecting they enjoying fast food Frequency distribution presented in Table 1 indicates that female going much more often visiting fast food restaurant that is 43 while for male only 36 (5-6 times per month). That shows even though the restaurant is located outside of the campus so that location does not become their obstacle for getting a taste good food. Based on multiple choice questions, we

can indicate that KFC is the most chosen fast food restaurant followed by Mcdonalds, Pizza Hut and Marrybrown. From the data we can see that students are preferred international brand more that local brand that is Marrybrown. This is because as mentioned above that the nearest the restaurant, the much higher the percent of visiting and no of chosen that restaurant. Further, they preferred going to the restaurant with friends (60.3%) that maybe their interest of going there for fun and enjoying their leisure time that is away from all the assignment and classes. Rating of fast food habits attributes: With the view to identified major attributes that influenced fast food habits, the data were collected on six attributes of fast food habits, that is: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Quality or brand Cost Sustainability for lunch or dinner Services Cleanliness Knowledge about diet disease

All the data using seven point Likert type scale. For the purpose of ranking, attributes mean difference along with standard error and 95% confidence interval were calculated and presented in Table 2. The means score indicates that knowledge about diet disease has the highest importance in the mind of fast food consumers even though when they buying fast food. Then, it followed by sustainability for lunch or dinner and we can see from this data we can conclude that students in university want a fast and easy meals because they do not have enough time to cook their own meals that will take a lot of time when preparing them. It is also followed by cleanliness, cost, services and quality or brand. This clearly indicates that university student is attracted more with cleanliness, cost and services while for them quality is not so important. Table 1 No of times Not at all 1-3 times per week 2-3 times per month 5-6 times per month Male 6 7 10 36 Table 2 Attributes Quality/Brand Cost Sustainability for lunch or dinner Services Cleanliness Knowledge about diet disease Ratings scores 4.5636 4.6529 4.7548 4.6470 4.7342 5.3058 Female 1 12 6 43

As we thorough the data, we can see that most of the respondent said that their favourite type of fast food is burgers (37.19%) but we also cannot denied their second type of fast food is chicken (35.53%). These 2 types of fast food are very popular among them followed by French fries, pizza, pasta and soup. But when differentiate it between genders we can indicates that most of female like to eat burgers while for male they prefer chicken. Why there is such different among them. We can say that maybe female think burger have a full diet that they want to maximizes their energy to attend classes. But that a wrong judgment if they think likes that. It will become worst if they taking them frequently in a long term period. It will cause an increasing amount of saturated fat in body and that will make our body cannot adapt with it and it will cause hypertension and other dangerous kind of such as breast cancer and ovarian cancer. For precaution as a female it will be better to continue working to reduce saturated fat intake. Live Journal (2007) state that most of the women craving for fast food more often when around the time of their period to be specified it is before the period. They also state that hormonal shifts cause changes in their body. When the period time, the body craved more for sugar or fat, which is why female like to eat more fast food. The level of estrogen in a womans body drops as well as the serotonin level in her brain when she is about to have her menstrual period. Serotonin is the brain chemical that is responsible for making a person relaxed and calm. For male, they experience junk food cravings during their teenage years when their hormones are still erratic. But since male do not have monthly hormonal changes in their bodies after puberty, they tend to have fewer junk food cravings than female. A study done at the University of Minnesota showed that one in five young female say they eat fast food more than three times a week, while 33% of male head out for fast food more than three times a week. In addition, medical researchers reveal that the changes in hormones that pregnant women experience and their need to increase the calories intake exhibits changes in their preferred diet. Last question from our multiple choices, we ask whether Malaysian eat too much fast food, 33.88% female strongly agree with the question. While only 14.05% male think Malaysian eat too much fast food. This can showed that Malaysian now days do not care about healthy. For them, it better do not waste time on cooking a fresh healthy food but it is much easier to just from the fast food outlet and within a minute the meals servered in front of you. From this observation we can conclude that our data is not camouflage and from the explanation we can conclude that female eat fast food more than male. Relationship between factors affecting towards fast food habit with expenses From the results so far we know that there are significant differences between the groups as a whole if the significance level which is below 0.05. The Multiple Comparisons Table shows which groups differed from each other. On a one-way ANOVA, post-hoc tests are conducted. We can see from the table below that there is a significant difference in services and expenses on fast food per month (P = 0.021) as well as between cleanliness and expense on fast food per month (P = 0.009). However, there were no differences between the groups that took relationship of expenses on fast food per month with quality or brand, cost or price, sustainability for lunch or dinner and knowledge about diet disease (P = 1.000).

Table 3 Attributes Quality/Brand Cost Sustainability for lunch or dinner Services Cleanliness Knowledge about diet disease F 1.388 1.788 1.361 3.406 4.477 0.074 Significance 0.250 0.153 0.258 0.020 0.005 0.974

EXPENSES Frequency RM0-RM20 RM21-RM40 RM41-RM60 RM61-RM80 Total 40 19 51 11 121 Percent 33.1 15.7 42.1 9.1 100.0 Valid Percent 33.1 15.7 42.1 9.1 100.0 Cumulative Percent 33.1 48.8 90.9 100.0

Valid

Level of student enjoys eating fast food towards factors affecting towards fast food habit This is the table that shows the output of the ANOVA analysis and whether we have a statistically significant difference between our group means. We can see that the significance level which is below 0.05, therefore there is a statistically significant difference in the level of customers enjoys eating fast food towards factors affecting towards fast food habit. Besides, we can find this out in the Multiple Comparisons Table which contains the results of posthoc tests. As shown in the table, students perceived a significant difference in the level of the customers enjoy eating fast food based on the five of six dimensions which is quality or brand (M=3.597, SD=0.031), cost or price (M=2.748, SD=0.007), sustainability for lunch or dinner (M=3.178, SD=0.006), services (M=2.521, SD=0.001) and cleanliness (M=2.660, SD=0.007). Quality or brand was the most important factor in how a student perceived enjoy eating fast food in relative to other dimensions. Table 4 Attributes Quality/Brand Cost Sustainability for lunch or dinner Services Cleanliness Knowledge about diet disease F 8.156 4.472 5.548 5.373 4.757 0.551 Significance 0.000 0.005 0.001 0.002 0.004 0.649

DO YOU ENJOY EATING FAST FOOD Frequency Percent Valid SA SD A D Total 28 12 77 4 121 23.1 9.9 63.6 3.3 100.0

Valid Percent 23.1 9.9 63.6 3.3 100.0

Cumulative Percent 23.1 33.1 96.7 100.0

Managerial implications Fast food providers need to focus on the quality, cleanliness of the food, content in the food and variety of delicious food besides other service parameter. Study clearly shows that consumers do not visit these outlets primarily for food but for fun, change the type of food, wants to eat different type of food and social reasons as they prefer homemade food like rice over the fast food. This is an important parameter to focus to have sustainable growth in the times to come. Further, information about nutrition value of the fast food must also be communicated to the consumers. The food must show the nutrition content in the food clearly to make the consumers understand better and have a chance to choose the healthy food. Thus, in nutshell, there is need to focus on the food contents by the fast food marketers. Impacts Eating too much fast food can give effects on the human body, but people still prefer it because it is fast, cheap and tasty. Every fast food eater knows the secondary effects of fast food, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and disorders such as dyslexia and attention deficit, they cant understand the more deep negative effects on the human body caused by this type of food. Moreover, eating fast food can changes mood considerably in a negative ways. Besides, it can also cause headaches. Another effect is it can decrease libido. These type of foods can and will harm a couples relationship since it has a direct impact on your sexual health. Concluding remarks Consumer acceptance of fast food served by the fast food restaurant is critically important for the future growth of fast food outlets in any kind of economy. Though the rating of female versus male is higher but male still the customer for the fast food restaurant. It showed that male craving for chicken much more because for them eating meat can bulid muscles. For female they only think about fast food to ensure that they do make their easier. Still, consumer demand more and more information related about hygiene issues. It showed when the cleanliness is one of the factor that have high mean. Based on the analysis, more and more acceptability of fast food restaurant change the life style of Malaysian. Competition among fast food provider with respect to quality of food and customer services will be more prominent in days to come. Limitation of study This study has its limitation that however does not liquidate the purpose of the study. In the sampling procedures, the bias is occurs. This is because some of the respondent choose more than one option and do not obey the instruction when to answer the survey. Then, some of the respondent answers the questionnaire without thinking deeply.

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