INFLUENCE OF DIGITAL RESOURCES ON FOOD CONSUMPTION PATTERN OF CIVIL SERVANTS AT HOUSEHOLD LEVEL IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of digital resources on food consumption patterns of civil servants at the household level in sub urban Ekiti state. Three research questions guided the study and three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted the correlational descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised 4,500 households across 16 local Government Areas. A sample size of 202 members of households was selected for the study through multi-stage sampling. Data were collected with a structured, validated close-ended questionnaire, with a reliability coefficient of 0.76. The data was analyzed with mean and standard deviation, Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC), independent samples t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The major findings were that the digital resources mostly used by civil servants in the study area are social media such as WhatsApp (  = 3.76), Facebook (  = 3.51) and Instagram (  = 3.25), and they mostly consume fat and oil food group (3.86), consume carbonated drinks and snacks between meal. However, the use  of digital resources has improved quantity of balanced meal consumed, the quality of diet, and availability of nutritional information (2.70 ?  ? 2.81), deteriorated the consumption of alcohol and non-food substances (  = 1.54). The study concludes that civil servants in Ekiti State tend to embrace digital resources as a means to increase their access to nutritional information and facilitate decision-making regarding their dietary choices. It was therefore recommended that the Nigerian government agency tasked with overseeing food and the food industry should take into account the impact of digital resources on eating habits and collaborate to encourage healthier food choices.