Investigation of nutritional knowledge levels and quality of life of medical faculty students in İstanbul

Introduction and Aim: Depending on the changing environmental conditions, nutritional problems such as skipping meals, inadequate and unbalanced nutrition, and increased consumption of ready-made food are seen in university students that will affect their quality of life. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the quality of life, nutritional status and nutritional knowledge levels of the students, and to determine the effect of the nutritional knowledge level on the quality of life. Materials and Methods: Our research was conducted with 226 students studying in the 1st and 5th grades of Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine, and it's a cross-sectional study. Questions about demographic characteristics, Quality of Life Scale (SF-36 Short Form) and Nutrition Knowledge Scale for Adults were applied to the students. The data were evaluated in the SPSS 22.0 package program. Chi-square test, post hoc test, t test, Anova (One Way), Mann Whitney U and Spearman Correlation were used to evaluate the data. The statistical significance level was accepted as p<0.05. Results: The students are between the ages of 17-32, with 60.6% female and 39.4% male. The rate of students attending the 1st grade is 56.2% and the rate of students attending the 5th grade is 43.8%. The rate of those who do sports is 38.9%, the rate of those who do not smoke is 85.8% and the rate of those who do not use alcohol is 73.9%. The rate of students who skip meals is 63.8%. Among the quality of life components of the students participating in our research, the average of physical indicators was determined as 77,42±15,65 and the average of mental indicators was determined as 49,13±20. When the quality of life was examined by gender, the difference between physical and mental indicators were found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). While the average of basic nutrition knowledge level of the students participating in our research was 61.66±6,20, the average of food preference knowledge level was determined as 40.27±4,80. No statistically significant difference was found between the level of nutrition knowledge by gender (p>0.05). Considering the correlation of the physical and mental indicators scores of the participants, there is a positive correlation between the basic nutrition and food preference scores. Conclusions: Increasing the nutritional knowledge level of individuals has an effect on their quality of life. By giving individuals healthy eating habits from an early age, generations are raised with a healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle. Conducting more comprehensive studies on the quality of life and nutritional knowledge levels of individuals will contribute to the literature.