Knowledge of probiotics and factors affecting their consumption by Jordanian College students

The objectives o f this study were to assess the knowledge and belief regarding probiotics and determine factors associated with their consumption among Jordanian college students. A total o f1000 students (58.8% females and 41.2% males) were interviewed using a cross sectional study. Each student was asked to complete a questionnaire including socio-demographic data and took a probiotic knowledge test. The results obtained showed that 11.7% o fstudents had heard o fprobiotics, but only 7.0% correctly knew what probiotics were. Probiotic knowledge among students was significantly correlated with gender, marital status and the students major with females being more knowledgeable than males. Students who had a higher knowledge score were significantly more willing to try probiotic products when they were recommended (p< 0.05). It is important that the informations about healthenhancing foods translated into simple, understandable and convincing messages that the consumer can realize in order to overcome the lack o fknowledge aboutprobiotic among educated consumers such as university students. Therefore, there is a need fo r health specialists to spend extra effort to educate students about the nature o fprobiotics and their health benefits which in turn could be used as prevention toolfor the occurrence o f many diseases.