Investigation of the healthy nutrition attitude scale and nutritional literacy level of university students receiving health education

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A healthy and quality lifestyle is built upon the fundamental pillars of healthy nutrition, quality sleep, physical activity, and stress management. OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to examine the attitudes towards healthy eating and nutrition literacy knowledge levels of university students who have received health education. METHODS: The study sample consisted of 295 students who were studying in the field of health sciences. The study includes questions from three separate sections. The first section contains a socio-demographic characteristics form, the second section contains the Healthy Nutrition Attitude Scale (ASHN), and the third section contains the Nutrition Literacy Scala (NLS). RESULTS: The mean ASHN score of our study was 71.38±11.7, while the mean NLS score was 19.80±4.2. When our scale scores were categorized, the ASHN score was found to be high, while the NLS score was borderline. A positive significant relationship was found between the scale score averages of ASHN and NLS. As students’ scores on healthy eating attitudes increase, it has been observed that their nutrition literacy scores also increase. CONCLUSIONS: We can say that health education is important in developing healthy eating habits among university students.