An investigation of dietary habits, eating attitudes and behaviours in adolescents and adults from Eastern Anatolia region in Turkey

This study was conducted to determine whether the first-year students from Eastern Anatolia region at Bingol University suffer from eating disorders by considering their eating behaviour scores of dietary habits from Eating Attitudes Test (EAT)-26. It is a cross-sectional and descriptive research. The research population consists of faculties, schools and vocational schools at Bingol University. 506 students from all these departments, who volunteered to participate in the study, were chosen through random sampling method. Questionnaire forms were given to the students during the interviews and asked to complete them at the same time. Then some measurements related to height, weight, waist circumference, neck circumference, and body mass index were conducted and written on questionnaire forms. 36.4 % out of 506 study participants are male and 63.6 % are female. The average age of participants (± standard deviation) is 20.3±2.77. 73.9 % of males and 72.7 % of females are within the normal BMI range. 7.9% out of all participants are thin and 2.2% of them are obese. It was found that the students' levels of average energy intake were low while fat consumption was high. When students' intake levels of daily nutritional elements were taken into account, it was seen that the students did not get sufficient amounts of many nutritional elements such as Vitamin E, Vitamin B1, folic acid, calcium, and iron especially in females. 51.1% out of males tend to eat three meals a day and 47.3% of them eat only one meal a day. 54.7% out of females tend to eat two meals a day and 41.3 of them eat only one meal a day. 11.7 % out of students eat outside ever day and 28.7 % of them eat out at least two or three times a week. 55.4 % of males prefer to eat at the kebab restaurants and 49.1%of females prefer to eat at fast food restaurants. The students generally regard radio and television as the first source of dietary advice and friends/acquaintances as a second one. Males regard printed media while females regard health staff as a third source of dietary advice. The factors which affect their dietary preferences for males are subjective ones such as palatability, taste, smell, texture of food, cost, and satiety and besides low-fat content and being easy to cook are effective factors for females. There is not any statistically significant difference between BMI groups in terms of hours of sleep. The majority of individuals within different age groups suffer from an insufficient amount of daily consumption of food including energy and essential nutrients. While 50.4% of males who have a normal weight consider themselves as thin or very thin, 60% of males who are slightly fat consider themselves as at a normal weight. Moreover, 59.8% of females who have a normal weight regard themselves as thin or very thin. 35.5% of females who are at a normal weight and 46.9% of slightly fat females perceive themselves at their own BMI range. These rates for males are 42.2% and 37.1% respectively. It was found that 14.1% of males and 24.5% of females suffered from eating behaviour disorder. In general 20.8 % of students were found to have a eating behaviour disorder. This study demonstrates that the students consume insufficient amounts of some essential nutrients and have unhealthy dietary habits. That is why some educational programs should be developed to help students to gain an awareness of adequate and balanced nutrition. In order to achieve this some plans and political decisions should be made to provide the students with the true information about healthy nutrition.