Assessment of mindful eating status of Osmaniye Korkut Ata University students of health school

This study was conducted on 276 students, 219 of whom were women and 57 were men, who volunteered to participate in the study at the 2018-2019 Academic Year at Osmaniye Korkut Ata University School of Health. The questionnaire with 30 questions was applied in order to question the demographic characteristics, health information, habits and nutritional information and Mindful Eating Questionnaire (YFÖ-30) was used to determine the mindful eating status of the students by the researcher. Mindful Eating Questionnaire (YFÖ-30) is a scale that measures the eating awareness level of individuals in daily life. As the questionnaire score increases, it is expected that the mindful eating levels of the individuals will increase. The mean age of the students is 20.32 ± 2.22 years and 62% of individuals are nursing students, 38.0% are nutrition and dietetics students. The mean mindful eating questionnaire score of the students participating in the study is 97.30 ± 12.07. It was determined that the mean scores of mindful eating questionnaire were 100.42 ± 12.00 in the nutrition and dietetics students, and 95.39 ± 11.82 in the nursing students, and this difference was found statistically significant (p <0.05). While 23.9% of the students stated that their mother, 16.6% of their father, 7.6% of their siblings and 45.6% of their second degree relatives were obese, only the students whose fathers were obese had lower mindful eating status (p<0.05). 16.7% of the students have a chronic disease and those who have chronic disease were found to have higher scores on the mindful eating questionnaire (p <0.05). While there was a statistically significant difference between the food choices of students and the mean scores of the mindful eating questionnaire (p <0.05), it was observed that especially mindful eating questionnaire scores of those who are vegan and say that they do not consume red meat are lower than other categories. It was determined that 79.7% of students skip meals and the they skip breakfast (19.7%) among main meals most frequently. In the study, the mean scores of the mindful eating questionnaire for those who don't skip meals were higher than those who skip (p<0.05). It was found that 23.2% of the students eat fast and 53.3% eat at normal speed, and there was a statistically significant difference between the eating speed and the mean scores of the mindful eating questionnaire (p<0.05). It was observed that students with a slow eating rate had a higher mean score of the mindful eating questionnaire than the other categories, and the lowest mean score of the mindful eating questionnaire was among those who eat fast. Whereas it was determined that 47.1% of students eat less and 24.6% eat more and more frequently when they feel sad/tired, it was found that the differences between gender and eating behaviors were statistically significant (p <0.05). A statistically significant difference was found between the sad/tired mood eating behavior and the mean scores of the mindful eating questionnaire (p <0.05), and the lowest mean score of the mindful eating questionnaire was observed among those who eat more and more frequently when they feel sad/tired according to emotional eating situations. In conclusion, this study was planned to determine the mindful eating status of Osmaniye Korkut Ata University School of Health students and will contribute to develop healthy nutrition strategies for this population. The data obtained should be supported by new studies. Key words: Nutrition, obesity, eating disorders, emotional eating, mindful eating