Health Literacy and Dietary Decision-Making Process among Families in Ondo State Nigeria

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Community Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing Science, University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, Nigeria.

2 Department of Nursing Science College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.

3 Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti Nigeria.

4 Department of Nursing Science, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria.

5 Department of Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University. Ile-Ife. Nigeria

Abstract

Background and Objective: This study examined the relationship between families' nutritional decision-making processes at home and their level of health literacy in Ondo State, Nigeria. 

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on Eight hundred and twenty-two (822) respondents from 274 families. Study participants were selected from those who fulfilled the selection criteria for participating in the study from six Local Government Areas of Ondo State, Nigeria. In this study, questionnaires of Health Literacy Survey European Union (HLS-EU-Q16) and dietary decision-making were used. Data was obtained using a computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI). Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and a chi-square test, p<0,05 at level of significance.

Results: The average age of respondents was 53 + 6.9, 44 + 8.5 and 19 + 4.7 years for fathers, mothers and children, respectively. 303(67.5), 225(63.7) and 6(30.0%) for father, mother and children respectively revealed an inadequate level of health literacy. The study also revealed that 234(74.5), 283(59.0) and 17(60.7%) of fathers, mothers and children respectively who had inadequate health literacy were the ones who made dietary decisions. There was a significant association between the level of health literacy and the dietary decision-making process of family members at (p<0,05) as revealed by Chi-Square results.

Conclusion: Results revealed that it can be concluded that more men who made dietary decisions have inadequate health literacy, it is therefore recommended that attention pe paid to this group in the community and to design and implement appropriate training programs to increase their level of health literacy.

Keywords


Acknowledgments: The authors acknowledged the support of the University of Medical Sciences Ondo, Nigeria Management under the leadership of Professor Adesegun Olayiwola FATUSI for providing a conducive environment for the conduct of the research. 


Availability of data and materials: The data and supportive information is available upon request.


Conflict of interest: The authors of the article hereby declare that there is no conflict of interest with the publication of the manuscript. 


Consent for publication: The authors hereby give consent for publication of the manuscript.


Ethical approval and consent to participate:  Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethical Research Committees at the Ministry of Health Ondo State and Afe Babalola University. Ado. Ekiti State (NHREC/18/08/2016 and ABUADHREC/02/08/2022/192). To ensure ethical considerations were met, the study complied with the 7th revision of the Declaration of Helsinki. 


Funding: This research work did not receive any funding. 


Author contributions: MGE conceived the study, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. CBB participated in reviewing both the proposal and the final report. KA, ODA, and JGO participated in data acquisition, analysis, interpretation, and manuscript revision. All authors collaborated in supervising and reviewing the paper and preparations of the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript. 

 

Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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