Nutritional literacy level of women with TYPE 2 diabetes and determination of affecting factors: A case of iğdir province

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the level of nutritional literacy (NL) in women with type 2 diabetes and to examine the factors affecting nutritional literacy. Materials and Methods: The planned analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 women with type 2 diabetes in Iğdır State Hospital between December 2021 and May 2022. Personal Information Form, Food Consumption Frequency Form, Nutrition Literacy Scale Form were applied to the participants. The data obtained were analyzed using the SPSS 26.0 program, and the data on the frequency of food consumption were analyzed using the BeBis 9.0 program. In statistical analysis, the level of significance was accepted as p<0.05. Results: It was found that 59.5% of the individuals had "good/adequate" NL level, and there was no individual with "inadequate" NL level. It was found that there was a weak negative correlation between the mean NL scale scores and the age of the individuals (p<0.001). According to the individuals' education level, marital status and employment status, NL scale total score averages, general nutritional knowledge, reading comprehension, food label and numerical literacy sub-dimension score averages showed statistically significant differences (p<0.001). A statistically significant difference was found between NL levels according to the status of individuals having at least one snack a day, seeing a dietitian as the most reliable source for accessing nutritional information, and going to regular checkups for type 2 diabetes (p<0.05). While it was observed that NL scale total score averages had a very weak and positive correlation with the amount of daily fat (g) and protein (g) that individuals received, it was observed that there was a very weak correlation with the carbohydrate (%) ratio (p<0.05). ). Conclusion: This study showed that there is a difference in nutritional literacy levels according to socio-demographic characteristics and food consumption status of individuals. Keywords: Literacy, Nutritional literacy, Nutritional status, Type 2 diabetes