Determination of dietary fiber intake and knowledge levels of adult women

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between dietary fiber intake and dietary fiber knowledge level of 361 women living in Sivas Center. Sociodemographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, information about nutritional habits and 24-hour retrospective food consumption records of the women were obtained through face-to-face interviews. Two scales (G and A Scale) were applied to the women to determine the level of dietary fiber knowledge. Scale G is a likert-type scale, whereas Scale A consists of two parts including health (Part A) and food (Part B) information. While 94.7% of women consume insufficient dietary fiber (<25g/day), 5.3% consume sufficient dietary fiber (≥25g/day). Daily dietary fiber intakes of women were similar according to age groups, marital status, educational status and income level (p>0.05). A significant difference was found between daily dietary fiber intake and Body Mass Index (BMI) classification of women (p=0.02). Accordingly, the daily dietary fiber intake of underweight women was lower than that of slightly obese women (p=0.027), and the daily dietary fiber intake of women with normal BMI classification was lower than that of slightly obese women (0.041). It was determined that the scores of the women from the B section of the A Scale did not differ significantly according to education and income status, but statistically different according to age (0.011), marital status (0.021) and occupational status (0.009). Married women and housewives had higher median scores for food knowledge in section B of the Food Fiber Knowledge Scale A than single women and students (p=0.021, p=0.022, respectively). It was determined that there was no significant relationship between the daily dietary fiber intake of women and their health knowledge and food knowledge scores from the subgroups of the G and A Dietary Fiber Knowledge Scale and A Dietary Fiber Knowledge Scale (p>0.05). As a result of this study, it was determined that women's daily dietary fiber intake levels were insufficient. It was determined that this deficiency was independent of socio-demographic characteristics and there was no relationship between dietary fiber information scales and dietary fiber intake. Therefore, it has been considered beneficial to conduct studies related to dietary fiber, which is important for maintaining health and treating certain diseases. Keywords: Nutrition, dietary fiber, dietary fiber knowledge level, dietary fiber knowledge level scales.