Assessment of self efficacy and healthy eating index in university students

Although university period nutritional habits carry over to the following years of life, it is a critical period in which lifestyle habits that may have a lasting effect on the development of chronic diseases are formed. Identifying students' dietary habits and correcting inaccuracies with appropriate methods is very important for the prevention of possible health problems. In this study, the relationship between self efficacy level and healthy eating index and body mass index of university students is addressed.. For this purpose, key words such as self efficacy, adolescent, healthy eating index and BMI were defined. A total of 305 university students, including 197 females and 108 males, were included in the study. The participants' demographic survey forms, self efficacy scale questions, and 24 hour dietary recall records required for the SYI-2015 assessment were evaluated. The study found that as the SYI-2015 score increased, the self efficacy score also increased. It was determined that individuals in the good nutrition group had higher self efficacy in the initiation and perseverance subscales, indicating a relationship between healthy eating and self efficacy. No significant differences were found in self efficacy and its subscales across BMI categories. It was observed that there was a significant difference between SYI-2015 groups and BMI groups (p<0.05) and that normal weight students were predominantly in the "poor nutrition" and "nutrition in need of improvement" groups. This suggests that individuals with normal weight may have poor quality dietary habits, and self efficacy belief is an important factor in improving their dietary habits.