Evaluation of the relationship between eating attitudes and perception of health in Çukurova University student candidates

Evaluation of the Relationship Between Eating Attitudes and Perception of Health in Çukurova University Student Candidates Aim: In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the eating attitudes and health perceptions of students who will begin university education and to reveal the relationship between them. Materials and Methods: Students enrolled at Çukurova University in the 2020-2021 academic year constituted the research universe. Since the students could not start school due to the pandemic, all students were invited to the online survey study. Eating Attitude Test-40 and Perception of Health Scale were applied to those who accepted to participate in the study. Results: Of the 2072 participants with an average age of 20.00 ± 3.23 (17-46) years, 56.3% were women. The rate of participants whose Eating Attitude Test score was ≥30, that is, the risk of eating disorders was 8.0%. This rate is 9.9% for female students and 5.5% for male students (p = 0,000); 8,0% for those under ideal weight, 6,6% for those with ideal weight, 12,7% for those above ideal weight (p = 0,000); It was 14.9% in patients with chronic disease and 7.5% in those without a chronic disease (p = 0.001). When the evaluation is made in terms of Perception of Health Scale; Except for the "control center" sub-dimension, all scores of male students were found to be higher than that of female students (p <0.05). The "control center" (p = 0.004), "precision" (p = 0.000) and "total" (p = 0.000) dimension scores of those with ideal weight were found to be high. Except for "importance of health", all dimension scores were found to be high in the group without chronic disease (p <0.05). Between the eating attitude test score and "self-awareness", "importance of health", BMI, age positively; Between "certainty" in a negative direction; It was found that there is a very weak positive correlation between "importance of health" and age (p <0.05). A statistically significant difference was found only in the self-awareness sub-dimension in terms of the cut-off score of the eating attitude test. (p = 0.000) Conclusion: It is recommended that all occupational groups serving university students, especially family physicians, take into account the findings of this study (female students, those who are not at ideal weight, those with chronic diseases and those with high self-awareness) to take into account the risk of eating disorders and take appropriate interventions by evaluating the opportunities. Key words: Perception, family medicine, health, university, eating disorder