Examining of food habits and nutrition knowledge levels of healthcare staff

YÜCEL, B. Examining of Food Habits and Nutrition Knowledge Levels of Healthcare Staff. Institute of Medical Sciences, Baskent University, Nutrition and Dietetics Department, Postgraduate Thesis, 2015. Well educated individuals who had education on field of health science, services in variety fields, for increasing of preventive health service, prevention of disease and policy making at the national level. This study was made to reveal the food habits and nutrition knowledge of healthcare staff, and to evaluate impact of health education upon nutrition knowledge level. The study was conducted in İstanbul province Fatih district, between March to June 2014, on a total of 321 healthcare professionals which 225 of them are female and 96 of them are male, who are performing their duties actively in 10 different institutions. The personal characteristics, feeding habits and nutrition knowledge levels of the individuals were questioned by the applied questionnaire. The average of age of the study group was found as 34.1 ± 9.4 years, and the average BMI was found as 24.4 ± 4.2 kg/m2. The 24.3% of the participants are doctors, 30.5% are nurse-health officer, 15.0% are health students in the universities, 17.8% are health technician and 12.5% are medical operative. When the nutrition habits of the research group were examined; it was determined that the main meal consumption of 73.2% is 3 meals and more, 74.5% of them are skipping meal with the answers of frequently and sometimes. Those who are skipping their meals (n=259) mostly skip their lunches with a frequency of 46.4% and the reason of skipping their meals of the other 54.8% was determined as not finding an opportunity. Among the participants of the study it was determined that 82.3% are consuming refreshments within day time; in their refreshments they preferred mostly tea/coffee (72.3%) among beverages, and mostly fruits (28.3%) among foods. Considering the eating habits of the individuals; it was determined that 47.7% prefer their meals medium salty and 50.2 % often eat normal speed. When the effect of the psychological condition on the eating habits of the healthcare professionals is evaluated in case of being sad or tired the frequency of being effected (72.6%) was found to be higher than the frequency of being joyful or excited (51.7%). The average total score of nutritional knowledge of health professionals is 61.03±20.04 on the scale of hundred. It was concluded that the total nutrition knowledge of the 2.8% of the participants are poor, 24.3 % is moderate, 41.1 % is good and 31.9 % is excellent. It was concluded that the general nutritional knowledge of the women among the healthcare professionals and those who doesn't skip meals within day time and general nutrition and medical nutrition knowledge levels of those who are 45 years and older, doctors and health students in the universities and who received nutrition education was found to be significantly higher when compared the other groups. Both providing information to people about health and nutrition and fulfill their tasks of being a role model successfully is possible for healthcare professionals who primarily have a sufficient knowledge of nutrition for themselves. To increase the number of studies on this subject will contribute to the generation of the standardizations intended for the improvement of nutritional educations. Keywords: Healthcare Professional, nutrition knowledge, nutrient, nutrition, health