Determining of factors influencing nutritional literacy levels in adult individuals

This research aimed to determine the levels of nutritional literacy among adult individuals and identify the factors influencing nutritional literacy. The study was conducted between November 2022 and June 2023 in Çayyolu district of Ankara province, specifically at the private healthy nutrition and diet clinic with a total of 160 adult individuals aged between 18 and 64 who were newly registered as volunteers. The data collection method involved face-to-face surveys. The survey questionnaire consisted of three sections. The first section included a 35-item personal information form, which assessed participants' sociodemographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, and dietary habits. The second section contained a 40-item "Beslenme Okuryazarlığı Değerlendirme Aracı (BODA)" developed to measure the nutritional literacy of adult individuals. The third section utilized a "Sağlıklı Beslenmeye İlişkin Tutum Ölçeği (SBİTÖ)" consisting of 21 items, developed to determine individuals' attitudes toward healthy eating. It was determined that 38.8% of the participants had low nutritional literacy, 36.3% had good nutritional literacy and 25.0% had inadequate nutritional literacy. When examining participants' attitudes towards healthy eating, 0.6% had low, 17.5% had moderate, 65.0% had high and 16.9% had ideal attitudes. There was a significant relationship between participants' age and their nutritional literacy levels (p<0.05). It was observed that as age increased, nutritional literacy levels decreased. However, there was no significant relationship between nutritional literacy level and gender or education level (p>0.05). In this study, it was observed that 47.4% of participants who had previously received dietitian support had good nutritional literacy, while only 19.0% of participants who did not receive dietitian support had good nutritional literacy. The participants who received dietitian support had higher levels of nutritional literacy and this relationship was statistically significant (p<0.05). Among participants who had previously followed a diet program, 41.9% had good nutritional literacy, whereas this percentage dropped to 20.9% among participants who did not follow a diet program. The relationship between participants' nutritional literacy and adherence to a diet program was found to be significant (p<0.05). Individuals with sufficient nutritional literacy had higher rates of engaging in regular physical activity and this relationship was statistically significant (p<0.05). There was no significant relationship between participants' nutritional literacy levels and their Body Mass Index (p>0.05). The healthy eating attitude mean score of the individuals who received nutrition education (76.7±10.83) was found to be higher than the healthy eating attitude mean score (72.6±11.51) of the individuals who did not receive education (p<0.05). It can be concluded that participants' anthropometric measurements, dietary habits and sociodemographic characteristics influenced their nutritional literacy levels. To raise awareness of nutritional literacy, the number and quality of educational programs conducted by experts in the field should be increased. Increasing individuals' nutritional literacy levels is believed to help prevent nutrition-related chronic diseases.