Relationship between nutritional literacy and quality of life in Turkish adults: a cross-sectional survey

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Sciences, Istanbul Galata University, İstanbul, Türkiye

2 Department of Community Health Systems, School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco

3 Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Sciences, Beykent University, İstanbul,Türkiye

Abstract

Background and Objective: Nutrition literacy is a modifiable lifestyle risk factor, and addressing literacy-related barriers may help improve health outcomes, including quality of life. This cross-sectional and descriptive study examines the relationship between Turkish adults nutrition literacy and quality of life. 

Materials and Methods: We conducted online surveys with volunteers aged 18-65 with a minimum primary school education who provided consent. We used the evaluation Instrument of Nutrition Literacy (EINLA) scale to evaluate the nutritional literacy level of the participants and the 36-item short-form health survey questionnaire (SF-36) to evaluate the quality of life. SPSS v25.0 (IBM Corp., NY, USA) was used for the statistical analysis of the data.

Results: Participants (n=1379) had a mean age of 33.89 (sd:13.11) years; 1001 (73%) were female, 776 (55%)were single, 822 (59.6%) were college graduates, 366 (26.5%)were overweight, 164 (11.9%) obese, and 177(12.8%)lived alone. There was a statistically significant correlation between the total nutrition literacy scores of the participants and their general health (r=0.220), physical function (r=0.351), physical role difficulty (r=0.088), function (r=0.253), pain (r=0.154) and mental health (r=0.213) (p<0.001). Except for the emotional role difficulty (p=0.128) and vitality (p=0.191) sub-dimensions of SF-36, there was a statistically significant correlation between the nutrition literacy level of the participants and their quality-of-life p<0.05 and p<0.001. 

Conclusions: Based on these results, as participants' nutritional literacy level increases, their quality of life improves. Therefore, this study confirms that improving nutrition literacy may positively affect the quality of life. Further research, however, needs to be undertaken to substantiate this conclusion with heterogeneous samples.
 

Keywords

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank all the volunteers who participated in this research.
Availability of data and materials: Datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.

 

Availability of data and materials: Datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.

Conflicts of interests: None of the authors have any conflicts of interest to declare.


Consent for publication: Not applicable


Ethical approval and consent to participate: The study protocol was approved  by the Acıbadem University and Acıbadem Healthcare Institutions Medical Ethics Committee (ATADEK) (IRB protocol number 2022-02/20.) and conformed to the Declaration of Helsinki.Informed consent was obtained from all participants. They had the right not to participate in the research and were assured that their names would not be used in any part of the research.

 

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.


Author contributions: DB conceived and designed research, analysed the data, interpreted the data, drafted the manuscript, and edited and revised the manuscript, approvaled of the final version and had primary responsibility for the project ; ET conceived and designed research and edited and revised manuscript and interpreted the data, approvaled of the final version ; KAK conceived and designed research, analysed the data, interpreted the data,  drafted the manuscript ; SS conceived and designed research and edited and revised the manuscript, drafted the manuscript ; ESS conceived and designed research and edited and revised the manuscript, drafted the manuscript,; SS conceived and designed research and edited and revised the manuscript, drafted the manuscript; All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Journal of Health Literacy
Volume 8, Issue 4 - Serial Number 32
January 2024
Pages 89-103

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