Status of Nutritional Literacy in Adolescents in the Semi-Rural Area in Turkey and Related Factors

Abstract

Objective: To determine the status of nutritional literacy and its affecting factors among the adolescents who are in the 9th grade in civril, in Denizli province, in Turkey. Design: This is a cross-sectional study that determines the sociodemographic characteristics, nutritional habits, nutritional behaviour, nutritional literacy status of adolescents and affecting factors. Setting: Denizli, Turkey. Participants: We included 523 adolescents in ninth grade in this study. Results: Half (49 center dot 7 %) of the participants were female; 47 %, in normal BMI; and 68 center dot 1 %, non-smokers. The mean (sd) Adolescent Nutrition Literacy Scale score was 67 center dot 6 (sd 7 center dot 9). Nutrition literacy status was related to mothers' education level (P 0 center dot 021); health perceptions (P 0 center dot 008); positive body perception (P 0 center dot 032); unhealthy food consumption status (P 0 center dot 017); information barriers (undecided about effort for information gathering (P 0 center dot 026), undecided about the difficulty of understanding information (P 0 center dot 042) and thinking it is difficult to understand (P 0 center dot 003)), trust in nutrition, diet information sources (nutrition and diet expert, dietitian trusting (according to others) (P 0 center dot 001), nutrition and diet expert, dietitian neutral to trust (compared with others) (P 0 center dot 011) and trust in textbooks (P 0 center dot 023)). Conclusions: The level of nutrition literacy status of participants was moderate. It is important to carry out interventions to increase the education level of women, positive body perceptions and general health perceptions of adolescents and to remove information barriers related to nutrition.