The effect of community nutrition education on nutritional knowledge levels of students reading at a university in Somalia
Author:
Abstract
Keywords
Abstract
Abstract
Aim: The aim of this research is to examine the effect of nutrition education given to Somali students studying in health departments at a university in Somalia on the nutritional knowledge of students.
Materials and Methods: It is a quasi-experimental study. 182 university students were included in the study. The nutritional knowledge level of the participants was measured before and after the nutrition education were given. The data were collected using a Nutrition Knowledge Level for Adults Scale (YETBID) questionnaire in which the sociodemographic characteristics and nutritional status of the participants were questioned. The lowest level of significance was accepted as p<0.05.
Results: The mean scores of the participants in the YETBID basic nutrition and food preference subscales were 44.2±6.0 and 29.6±4.9, respectively. The nutritional knowledge level of 52.7% in the basic nutrition scale and 48.9% in the food preference scale was found to be poor. After the nutrition education given, the mean scores of the participants in the YETBID basic nutrition and food preference subscales were 47.0±7.7 and 31.5±6.0, respectively. The result shown that after the education given students’ scores increased statistically for both subscales (p<0.05).
Conclusion: It was concluded that the nutritional knowledge level of the students was not sufficient and the basic nutrition education was effective in increasing the nutritional knowledge level.