Research of the nutritional knowledge and nutritional habits of the University students studying in the city of Adıyaman

ABSTRACTRESEARCH OF THE NUTRITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND NUTRITIONAL HABITSOF THE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS STUDYING IN THE CITY OF ADIYAMANERTEN, MuratMaster, Family Economy and Nutrition Education Science DepartmentThesis Adviser: Prof. Dr. Işıl ŞİMŞEKThis research, which was performed in order to determine the nutritionalknowledge and nutritional habits of the university students studying in the city ofAdıyaman, was realized on 250 university students studying in Adıyaman Faculty ofEducation, Adıyaman Faculty of Science and Letters, Adıyaman Sanitary High School, andAdıyaman Vocational High School. A survey was developed and applied for the purposeof determining the personal information, nutritional knowledge and nutritional habits of thestudents. The data gathered were evaluated using SPSS 7.5 (Statistical Program for SocialScience 7.5) statistical package program. Arithmetic mean, standard deviation, the valuesbelow and above, the number and percent distributions were used in this research.The khi-square (x2) test, the independent t-test, one-way variance analysis and the tukeytest were used in determining the statistical importance.%72.8 of the students have never been educated in nutrition. The ratio of femaleseducated in nutrition (%40.8) is higher (p<0.001) than that of males (%12.5). If a trainingprogramme on nutrition is to be arranged, a great many of the students (%85.6) are willingto participate as audience. The fundamental nutritional knowledge of %70.8 of thestudents is at the intermediate level, which is not enough. %77.2 of the students don?tbelieve that they are healthily nourished. A great part of the students is composed of thosewho eat three (%40.4) and four (%32.4) meals a day overall, the meals being main mealsand snacks. %28.0 of the students don?t have a habit of eating snacks. The number of dailymeals of those who are educated in nutrition is higher than that of those who aren?teducated in nutrition (p<0.05). The ratio of having breakfast is higher in those who don?tsmoke (p<0.05). The frequency of consumption of milk and the frequency of consumptionof nutriments in the fruit and vegetable group among students is under the necessary level.The most frequently consumed drinks are, successively; water, tea and coffee.By means of this research performed, the results that the deficiencies in thenutritional knowledge and nutritional habits of university students can be overcome withactive and constant nutritional education were reached.