Assessment of Nutrition Knowledge among University Students in Ankara
Yahya Özdoğan *
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Turkey.
Hülya Yardımcı
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ankara University, Turkey.
Ayşe Özfer Özçelik
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ankara University, Turkey.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Aims: Nutrition knowledge is one of the factors that could influence a university student’s nutritional behaviours. This research was aimed to determined nutrition knowledge of university students in Ankara
Study Design: The study was conducted in Ankara, Turkey between May and July, 2014 in university students.
Place and Duration of Study: This was a cross sectional study.
Methodology: Out of 341 students, 66.3% were female (n=226), 33.7% were male (n=115). Our questionnaire included a demographic section, and 25 true-false nutrition knowledge questions. For the reliability of the questionnaire, the internal consistency coefficient was calculated, and the Kuder Richardson (KR-20) value was found to be 0.82. For the statistical analyses of the data, table showing mean, standard deviation ( ) and percentage (%) values were prepared. When identifying the nutrition knowledge of students, the “independent t test” was used for the as taking gender and age.
Results: The mean nutrition knowledge score was 15.8 ± 4.9. The mean score for gender was 16.6 ± 4.3 in females, and 14.2 ± 5.5 in males, and found statistically significant (p=.000).
Conclusion: In this study, was determined that nutrition information scores of the participants were moderate. This situation is the result of increasing the level of nutrition knowledge in young people. Nutrition knowledge may be effective in increasing the quality of life and decreasing the prevalence of some diseases.
Keywords: Nutrition knowledge, gender, age, university