Nutrition literacy and its relationship with diet quality and quality of life among white-collar employees: a study from Türkiye
Abstract Background Nutrition literacy is an important component of health and healthy eating behaviors. The aim of this study was to determine the nutrition literacy (NL) status of white-collar employees and its relationship with adherence to the Mediterranean diet, anthropometric measurements, and...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2024-12-01
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| Series: | BMC Public Health |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-21078-4 |
| _version_ | 1826924202627694592 |
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| author | İdil Alpat Yavaş Merve Guney-Coskun Neda Saleki Fatma Elif Sezer Karataş Eda Keskin |
| author_facet | İdil Alpat Yavaş Merve Guney-Coskun Neda Saleki Fatma Elif Sezer Karataş Eda Keskin |
| author_sort | İdil Alpat Yavaş |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Nutrition literacy is an important component of health and healthy eating behaviors. The aim of this study was to determine the nutrition literacy (NL) status of white-collar employees and its relationship with adherence to the Mediterranean diet, anthropometric measurements, and lifestyle behaviors, including eating habits, dietary intake, and physical activity level. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted with 3459 white-collar employees aged 18–65 who lived in Türkiye. A questionnaire prepared by the researchers was used to obtain information about the demographic characteristics and anthropometric measurements of the participants. Evaluation Instrument of Nutrition Literacy on Adults (EINLA) was used to assess NL, the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) was used to assess diet quality, and the Quality of Life Test Short Form-36 (SF-36) was used to determine quality of life. Data analysis was conducted using the IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0 program. Results With an average age of 24.3 ± 10.5 years and 50.7% women, women presented higher nutrition literacy than men did (p < 0.001). Most participants held university or postgraduate degrees with medium to high income levels and the majority demonstrated sufficient NL. Compared with other participants, those with adequate NL had significantly higher Mediterranean diet adherence, and SF-36 physical (77.27 ± 16.26), and mental (65.45 ± 17.00) scores (p < 0.001). Negative correlations were found between the EINLA score and BMI (r=-0.082), waist circumference (r=-0.072), hip circumference (r=-0.036), waist/hip ratio (r=-0.074), and waist/height ratio (r=-0.056) (p < 0.05). Additionally, weak positive correlations were observed between the EINLA score and the SF-36 physical (r = 0.158) and mental scores (r = 0.088), as well as the metabolic equivalent of task (MET) score (r = 0.042) (p < 0.05). Conclusions The results of this study demonstrated that NL is a significant predictor of anthropometric measurements and healthy lifestyle behaviors including dietary habits, and quality of life among adults. Nutrition literacy can enable individuals to make informed choices and thus contribute to the prevention of many noncommunicable chronic diseases. |
| first_indexed | 2025-02-17T14:37:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7280b1e8707e4a2c8f121f2ff9198761 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1471-2458 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-17T14:37:18Z |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-7280b1e8707e4a2c8f121f2ff91987612024-12-22T12:53:10ZengBMCBMC Public Health1471-24582024-12-0124111210.1186/s12889-024-21078-4Nutrition literacy and its relationship with diet quality and quality of life among white-collar employees: a study from Türkiyeİdil Alpat Yavaş0Merve Guney-Coskun1Neda Saleki2Fatma Elif Sezer Karataş3Eda Keskin4Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul Medipol UniversityDepartment of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul Medipol UniversityDepartment of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul Medipol UniversityDepartment of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul Medipol UniversityDepartment of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul Medipol UniversityAbstract Background Nutrition literacy is an important component of health and healthy eating behaviors. The aim of this study was to determine the nutrition literacy (NL) status of white-collar employees and its relationship with adherence to the Mediterranean diet, anthropometric measurements, and lifestyle behaviors, including eating habits, dietary intake, and physical activity level. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted with 3459 white-collar employees aged 18–65 who lived in Türkiye. A questionnaire prepared by the researchers was used to obtain information about the demographic characteristics and anthropometric measurements of the participants. Evaluation Instrument of Nutrition Literacy on Adults (EINLA) was used to assess NL, the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) was used to assess diet quality, and the Quality of Life Test Short Form-36 (SF-36) was used to determine quality of life. Data analysis was conducted using the IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0 program. Results With an average age of 24.3 ± 10.5 years and 50.7% women, women presented higher nutrition literacy than men did (p < 0.001). Most participants held university or postgraduate degrees with medium to high income levels and the majority demonstrated sufficient NL. Compared with other participants, those with adequate NL had significantly higher Mediterranean diet adherence, and SF-36 physical (77.27 ± 16.26), and mental (65.45 ± 17.00) scores (p < 0.001). Negative correlations were found between the EINLA score and BMI (r=-0.082), waist circumference (r=-0.072), hip circumference (r=-0.036), waist/hip ratio (r=-0.074), and waist/height ratio (r=-0.056) (p < 0.05). Additionally, weak positive correlations were observed between the EINLA score and the SF-36 physical (r = 0.158) and mental scores (r = 0.088), as well as the metabolic equivalent of task (MET) score (r = 0.042) (p < 0.05). Conclusions The results of this study demonstrated that NL is a significant predictor of anthropometric measurements and healthy lifestyle behaviors including dietary habits, and quality of life among adults. Nutrition literacy can enable individuals to make informed choices and thus contribute to the prevention of many noncommunicable chronic diseases.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-21078-4Diet qualityMediterranean dietNutrition literacyQuality of lifeWhite-collar employees |
| spellingShingle | İdil Alpat Yavaş Merve Guney-Coskun Neda Saleki Fatma Elif Sezer Karataş Eda Keskin Nutrition literacy and its relationship with diet quality and quality of life among white-collar employees: a study from Türkiye BMC Public Health Diet quality Mediterranean diet Nutrition literacy Quality of life White-collar employees |
| title | Nutrition literacy and its relationship with diet quality and quality of life among white-collar employees: a study from Türkiye |
| title_full | Nutrition literacy and its relationship with diet quality and quality of life among white-collar employees: a study from Türkiye |
| title_fullStr | Nutrition literacy and its relationship with diet quality and quality of life among white-collar employees: a study from Türkiye |
| title_full_unstemmed | Nutrition literacy and its relationship with diet quality and quality of life among white-collar employees: a study from Türkiye |
| title_short | Nutrition literacy and its relationship with diet quality and quality of life among white-collar employees: a study from Türkiye |
| title_sort | nutrition literacy and its relationship with diet quality and quality of life among white collar employees a study from turkiye |
| topic | Diet quality Mediterranean diet Nutrition literacy Quality of life White-collar employees |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-21078-4 |
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