A STUDY OF THE STATE OF KNOWING THE NUTRITIONAL LITERACY CONCEPT IN TURKEY
Keywords:
Nutrition literacy, literate, undergraduates, TurkeyAbstract
This study aimed to determine the state of knowing the nutritional literacy concept, self-assessment as a nutritional literate, active stakeholders in nutritional literacy, benefits of being nutritional literate, food and nutrition information resources of university students. The questionnaire had the questions about whether the participants knew Nutrition Literacy (NL) as a concept. It also had self-assesment questions as well as those about the benefits of NL.It was determined that more than half (57.0%) of the undergraduates did not know the NL as a term and definition (p=0.000). The NL level was self-assesment by 30.8%, 51.0% and 18.2% of students as good, intermediate or poor, respectively, (p=0.157).It was determined that undergraduate students included in the study generally had a limited knowledge and consciousness about nutrition literacy, while female students had better nutrition literacy than male students; in addition, family was concluded as the most active stakeholder in nutrition literacy. Qualitative, quantitative researches and experimental interventions are needed to determine the status of nutrition literacy in different parts of society of different demographic characteristics other than undergraduate students so as to set the framework of nutrition literacy concept.
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