Determination of adult individuals' fear of COVID-19, healthy living behaviors and nutritional knowledge levels during the pandemia period

This study was conducted to determine the fear of COVID-19, healthy lifestyle behaviors and nutritional knowledge levels of individuals during the pandemia period. The study was carried out with 509 individuals between the ages of 18-64 between December 2020 and April 2021. The questionnaire form, which includes questions about socio-demographic characteristics, health information, nutritional habits, anthropometric measurements and food consumption frequencies of individuals, was applied online. The COVID-19 Fear Scale (FCS) to determine the COVID-19 fear level of individuals, the Nutrition Knowledge Level for Adults Scale (NKLSA) to determine nutritional information, and the Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale II (HLSB II) to determine healthy lifestyle behaviors were used. The mean age of the individuals participating in the study was 30.83±10.40 years. 58.7% of individuals were women, 41.3% were men. It was found that FCS scores of individuals were "16.97±6.17"; basic nutrition scores were "54.31±7.69", food preference scores were "37.05±6.29" of NKLSA and HLBS II total scores were "121.11±19.24". Women's FCS scores were higher than men (p<0.05). The nutritional knowledge scores of individuals who are married, have a high level of education, good income and work in the public sector are significantly higher (p<0.05). It was determined that individuals in aged between 55-64, married, having a high level of education, working in the public sector, having a good economic status and having a disease scored higher on the HLBS II scale (p<0.05). A weak positive correlation was found between individuals' FCS scores and food preference knowledge and only health responsibility sub-dimension scores of the HLBS II scale (r=0.088, p<0.05; r=0.181, p<0.05). A weak positive correlation was also found between basic nutrition and food preference knowledge scores and the different sub-dimensions and total scores of HLBS II (r=0.164, p<0.05; r=0.196, p<0.05). As a result, it has been observed that individuals' fear of COVID-19, nutritional knowledge level and healthy lifestyle behaviors are affected by various sociodemographic characteristics and there is a weak relationship between them. Keywords: Nutritional knowledge level, fear of COVID-19, healthy lifestyle behaviors.