Pharmacology and biochemistry undergraduate students'concern for a healthy diet and nutrition knowledge

• Autor(a) principal: Bernardes Spexoto, Maria Claudia [UNESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Ferin, Giovana Garcia [UNESP], Duarte Bonini Campos, Juliana Alvares [UNESP]
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://www.aulamedica.es/gdcr/index.php/nh/article/view/8350; http://hdl.handle.net/11449/129353
• topic: Biochemistry students; Healthy behaviors; Healthy foods; Nutrition knowledge; Pharmacology students; Estudiantes de Bioquímica; Comportamientos Saludables; Los alimentos saludables; Conocimientos de Nutrición; Estudiantes Farmacia

Objective: To estimate the concern for a healthy diet and the nutrition knowledge of undergraduate students of a pharmacology and biochemistry program and their associations with the variables of interest.Methods: This cross-sectional study administered the Nutrition Knowledge Scale and the How is your diet? questionnaire to 381 students. The associations between concern for a healthy diet and nutrition knowledge and between these two factors and the demographic variables were measured by the chi-square test (chi(2)) or Fisher's exact test. The significance level was set at 5%.Results: The mean age of the students was 20.6 (standard deviation [SD] = 2.7) years; 78.2% were female students; their mean body mass index was 22.6 (SD = 3.7) kg/m(2); and 73.5% had an appropriate body mass index related nutritional status. Most students fell within the category "pay attention to your diet" (77.1%) and "moderate nutrition knowledge" (79.7%). Concern for a healthy diet was significantly associated with program year (p = 0.024), socioeconomic class (p = 0.012), and physical activity (p < 0.001). Nutrition knowledge was associated only with program year (p < 0.001). Concern for a healthy diet was not associated with nutrition knowledge (p = 0.808).Conclusion: Physically inactive, first-year students from socioeconomic class B (US$ 1,046 - 1,872) were less concerned with a healthy diet. Such concern was not related to the students'nutrition knowledge.