Title:

Do on- or off- campus university students have better eating competence?

Background: Eating competence (EC) is defined as an overall assessment of eating attitude, food acceptance, internal regulation, and contextual skills regarding diet and lifestyle. EC has been researched among adult women, Hispanic populations, and in relation to sleep quantity among college students. Little research has examined levels of EC in off-campus college students. Objective: Comparing total EC and EC subscores between upper-level undergraduate students (aged 18-24) living on-campus versus off-campus at a large northeastern public university. Study Design, settings, and Participants: Between 2015 and 2023, consented participant data were collected from the College Health and Nutrition Assessment Survey (CHANAS), an ongoing cross-sectional study of students enrolled in an introductory nutrition course. Outcome Analysis: Participants self-reported data regarding their living arrangements and EC via the eating competency Satter inventory (ecSI 2.0). The ecSI 2.0 is a 16-item questionnaire that evaluates total EC as well as EC subscores. ANCOVA was used to evaluate differences between EC scores and housing status using age and gender as covariates. Results: After excluding first-year students and those with missing data, the final sample (n=2000) included 41.6% (n= 831) students who lived on campus without a kitchen, 22.9% (n=458) lived on campus with a kitchen, and 35.6% (n=711) lived off-campus at home or in an apartment with kitchen access. Participants were mostly female (61.2%) and had a mean age of 19.67 ± 1.12 years; overall mean EC scores were 32.6±9.0. No differences were observed in the mean EC scores for students who live on-campus without a kitchen, on-campus with a kitchen, or off-campus at home or in an apartment with a kitchen (32.3 ± 9.2, 32.6 ± 9.1, 32.7 ± 9.2 respectively, all p>.05) Conclusion: Results do not suggest living arrangements influence total EC or EC subscores in this sample of upper-level college students. Living on- or off-campus is not likely a predictor of EC, therefore there is no indication whether additional resources should be allocated based upon student living arrangements. Funding: Funded by New Hampshire Agriculture Experimental Station, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Project 1010738 and the state of New Hampshire.

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