The Effect of Health Literacy on Diet Quality

Abstract

Aim: This cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the effect of university students’ health literacy level on diet quality.

Subjects and Method: A total of 580 volunteer students from Erciyes University Faculty of Health Sciences Department of Nutrition and Dietetics (ND), Tourism Faculty (TF), and Sport Sciences Faculty (SS) were included in the study. Health literacy was determined by the “Newest Vital Signs Test (NVS)” and diet quality by the “Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2105)”. The data were collected by face-to-face interview method and anthropometric measurements were made. A value of p <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: The proportion of those with sufficient health literacy is the highest in ND (99.2%), then in SS (53.2%), and the least in TF (31.2%) students (p<0.001). It was determined that the level of health literacy was limited for TF (2.59±1.97) and SS (3.48±1.87) students, while BD students’ (5.55±0.68) were sufficient. The HEI-2015 score of students with a sufficient level of health literacy (56.30±9.73) is significantly higher than those with limited (54.26±9.61) and high probability limited (53.77±9.52) (p= 0.037). A positive weak significant correlation was detected between health literacy level and diet quality (rho= 0.123, p= 0.003). A negative weak correlation was found between the NVS score, the waist circumference, and the waist/hip ratio of the individuals and, the waist/hip ratio and the HEI-2015 score (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The increase in the level of health literacy positively affects the quality of the diet, indicating a healthier eating habit. It is an expected result that the health literacy level and diet quality of ND students are higher than the SS and TF students. But still expected score is low for the ND students and their diet need improvement. It is recommended to increase the number and hours of courses on nutrition in the education curriculum of the TF and SS faculties closely related to nutrition.