Nutrition Literacy And Its Predictors In Overweight/Obese And Non-Overweight/Obese Adult Turkish Women

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Department of Public Health Nursing, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Türkiye.

2 Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Halic University, Istanbul, Türkiye.

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Nutrition literacy has an important role in gaining healthy eating habits and preventing chronic diseases related to nutrition such as obesity. This study aims to determine the level of nutrition literacy of adult Turkish women and its predictors. 

Materials and Methods: In this comparative descriptive research, 239 women were selected into 2 groups by their BMI, from Public Education Centers in Istanbul, Turkey, by using simple random sampling method. Data were collected using the Introductory Characteristics Form and Adult Nutrition Literacy Assessment Tool. 

Results: Among the participants, 18.8% of women had inadequate, 20.5% had borderline and 60.7% had adequate nutrition literacy. Nutrition literacy scores varied between groups, with 37.3% of overweight/obese women showing inadequate nutrition literacy, while 91.7% of non-overweight/obese women demonstrated adequate literacy. In the study, adequate numerical literacy and food label reading rate of women with overweight/obese was found lower than women without overweight/obese. It was also found that the number of main meals increases the nutritional literacy level in women with overweight/obese. In the overweight/obese group, it was found that nutritional literacy increases 0.333 times by the number of children, 0.369 times by the waist circumference, 0.626 times by the snack amount and 91.166 times by Youtube usage. 

Conclusion: The nutrition literacy of both groups was found to be high. This study revealed that number of daily meals and snacks, children, waist circumferences, media usage, and gender roles are preditors of nutrition literacy in Turkish adult women. An important finding of this study is that nutrition literacy is highly affected by YouTube usage which provides a new perspective in terms of public health practices and policies. It is recommended for public health nurses to use this influence of social media when planning health promoting interventions.

Keywords

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the Kadikoy Rasimpasa and Moda Gonulluevi for their collaboration and the participants for giving their valuable time.


Availability of data and materials: The datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.


Conflict of interest: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.


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


Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethics Committee Approval was obtained from Uskudar University (Approval Number: B.08.6.YOK.2.US.0.05.0.06/2018/748), and permission to collect data from Public Education Centers was granted. An Informed Voluntary Consent Form was provided to each participant, detailing the study’s purpose, use of personal data, and contact information for the researcher. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants before data collection.


Funding: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.


Authors' Contributions: EHKC contributed to the study design, data collection, data analysis and manuscript writing. MNE contributed to data analysis, interpretation and critical revision of the manuscript. Both 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/

References

  1. Krause C, Sommerhalder K, Beer-Borst S, Abel T. Just a subtle difference? Findings from a systematic review on definitions of nutrition literacy and food literacy. Health Promot Int. 2016;33. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daw084 PMid:27803197 PMCid:PMC6005107
  2. Keser A, Ciracioglu ED. Health and Nutrition Literacy. In: Yildirim F, Keser A, editors. Health Literacy. 1st ed. Ankara: Ankara University Publications; 2015. p. 44.
  3. Spronk I, Kullen C, Burdon C, O'Connor H. Relationship between nutrition knowledge and dietary intake. Br J Nutr. 2014;10:1713-1726. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114514000087 PMid:24621991
  4. Primack BA, Fine D, Yang CK, Wickett D, Zickmund S. Adolescents' impressions of antismoking media literacy education: Qualitative results from a randomized controlled trial. Health Educ Res. 2009;24(4):608-621. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyn062 PMid:19052155 PMCid:PMC2706492
  5. Hoffman EW, Austin EW, Pinkleton BE, Austin BW. An Exploration of the Associations of Alcohol-Related Social Media Use and Message Interpretation Outcomes to Problem Drinking Among College Students. Health Commun. 2016;32(7):864-871. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2016.1195677 PMid:27421038
  6. Lenhart A, Purcell K, Smith A, Zickuhr K. Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults. Pew Internet and American Life Project; 2010. http://pewinternet.org/reports/2010/social-media-and-young-adults.aspx.
  7. Yanikkerem E. Effects of Obesity on Women's Health. KOU Sag Bil Der. 2017;3(1):37-43. https://doi.org/10.30934/kusbed.359281
  8. Miedema B, Bowes A, Hamilton R, Reading S. Assessing the Efficacy of a Group Mediated Nutritional Knowledge Intervention for Individuals with Obesity. Can J Diet Pract Res. 2016;77(4):206-209. https://doi.org/10.3148/cjdpr-2016-022 PMid:27763784
  9. Zoellner J, Connell C, Bounds W, Crook L, Yadrick K. Nutrition literacy status and preferred nutrition communication channels among adults in the Lower Mississippi Delta. Prev Chronic Dis. 2009;6(4):A128.
  10. Eyuboglu A, Ozar S, Tanriover HT. Socioeconomic and Cultural Dimensions of Participation of Women Living in Cities to Business Life. Publications of the Prime Ministry's General Directorate of Status and Problems of Women; 2000.
  11. The Ministry of Family and Social Policies, Directorate General for Family and Community Services. Family Structure Survey of Turkey. Ankara; 2014.
  12. Family Structure in Turkey. Research Report. Republic of Turkey. Ministry of Family and Social Policies; 2006.
  13. Family Structure in Turkey Survey Report. Ankara: T.C. Ministry of Family and Social Policies; 2011.
  14. Family Structure in Turkey Survey Report. Ankara: T.C. Ministry of Family and Social Policies; 2021.
  15. Erenoğlu Son N. Association of nutrition literacy level with sociodemographic data: Case of Afyonkarahisar. Med Science. 2023;12(1):264-270. https://doi.org/10.5455/medscience.2022.10.218
  16. Demir Ozdenk G, Ozcebe L. Nutritional literacy, nutritional behaviors and related factors of a university employee. Turk J Public Health. 2018;16(3):178-189. https://doi.org/10.20518/tjph.499902
  17. Steils N, Obaidalahe Z. "Social food": Food literacy co-construction and distortion on social media. Food Policy. 2020;95:101932. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2020.101932
  18. Gokburun I. Population Movements in Istanbul Between 1950-2015. ANKAD. 2017;1(3):110-130.
  19. TUIK. Provincial Populations by Years. [Press release] 2018. http://tuik.gov.tr/ustmenu.do?metod=temelist.
  20. Ural D, Kilickap M, Goksuluk H, et al. Prevalence of Obesity and Waist Circumference Data in Turkey: A Systematic Review of the Epidemiologic Study on Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression. Turk Kardiyol Dern Ars. 2018;46(7):577-590. https://doi.org/10.5543/tkda.2018.62200 PMid:30391987
  21. Cesur DB, Kocoglu G, Sumer H. Evaluation instrument of nutrition literacy on adults (EINLA) A validity and reliability study. IFNM. 2015;2(3):174-177. https://doi.org/10.15761/ıfnm.1000125.
  22. World Health Organization. Body Mass Index (BMI) Classification 2010. Available from: https://www.who.int/europe/news-room/fact-sheets/item/a-healthy-lifestyle---who-recommendations.
  23. Hosmer DW, Lemeshow S, Sturdivant RX. Applied Logistic Regression. 3rd ed. Wiley; 2013. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118548387
  24. Kleinbaum DG, Klein M. Logistic Regression: A Self-Learning Text. 3rd ed. Springer; 2010.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1742-3
  25. Menard S. Applied Logistic Regression Analysis. 2nd ed. SAGE Publications; 2002. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412983433
  26. Peng CYJ, Lee KL, Ingersoll GM. An Introduction to Logistic Regression Analysis and Reporting. J Educ Res. 2002;96(1):3-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220670209598786
  27. Hawkes C, Smith TG, Jewell J, Wardle J, Hammond RA, Friel S, Thow AM, Kain J. Smart food policies for obesity prevention. The Lancet. 2015;385(9985):2410-2421. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61745-1 PMid:25703109
  28. Russell L, Rothman RH. Patient Understanding of Food Labels: The Role of Literacy and Numeracy. Am J Prev Med. 2006;31(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2006.07.025 PMid:17046410
  29. Cesur DB, Sümer DH. Nutrition Literacy Status Of Adults Residing In Sivas Province And Its Relationship With Quality Of Life: A Cross-Sectional Study From Turkey. İjmhs. 2018;8(1):1-9.
  30. Mostafazadeh P, Jafari MJ, Mojebi MR, et al. Assessing the relationship between nutrition literacy and eating behaviors among nursing students: a cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health. 2024;24:18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-17468-9 PMid:38166862 PMCid:PMC10759699
  31. Silva P. Food and Nutrition Literacy: Exploring the Divide between Research and Practice. Foods (Basel). 2023;12(14):2751. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12142751 PMid:37509843 PMCid:PMC10378922
  32. Yarmohammadi P, Morowatisharifabad MA, Rahaei Z, Khayyatzadeh SS, Madadizadeh F. Nutrition literacy and its related demographic factors among workers of Taraz Steel company, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Iran. Front Public Health. 2022;10:911619. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.911619 PMid:36033775 PMCid:PMC9412198
  33. Mengi Çelik Ö, Karacil Ermumcu MS, Ozyildirim C. Turkish version of the 'food and nutrition literacy questionnaire for Chinese school-age children' for school-age adolescents: a validity and reliability study. BMC Public Health. 2023;23:1807. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16732-2 PMid:37716935 PMCid:PMC10505319
  34. Ahmadi F, Karamitanha F. Health literacy and nutrition literacy among mothers with preschool children: What factors are effective? Prev Med Rep. 2023;35:102323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102323 PMid:37576847 PMCid:PMC10413137
  35. Li S, Zhu Y, Zeng M, Li Z, Zeng H, Shi Z, Zhao Y. Association Between Nutrition Literacy and Overweight/Obesity of Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study in Chongqing, China. Front Nutr. 2022;9:893267. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.893267 PMid:35634378 PMCid:PMC9134066
  36. Utter J, Denny S, Lucassen M, Dyson B. Adolescent cooking abilities and behaviors: associations with nutrition and emotional well-being. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2016;48:35-41.e31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2015.08.016 PMid:26411900
  37. Aslan Ceylan J, Bayindir Gumus A. Nutrition Literacy and Quality of Life of University Students: Evidence from A Cross-Sectional Survey. J Health Literacy. 2024;9(1):66-77. doi:10.22038/jhl.2023.76111.1497
  38. Taleb S, Itani L. Nutrition Literacy among Adolescents and Its Association with Eating Habits and BMI in Tripoli, Lebanon. Dis Basel. 2021;9(2):25. https://doi.org/10.3390/diseases9020025 PMid:33805571 PMCid:PMC8103266
  39. Doustmohammadian A, Omidvar N, Keshavarz-Mohammadi N, et al. The association and mediation role of Food and Nutrition Literacy (FNLIT) with eating behaviors, academic achievement and overweight in 10-12 years old students: a structural equation modeling. Nutr J. 2022;21:45. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-022-00796-8 PMid:35778743 PMCid:PMC9248125
  40. Kamarlı H, Suna G, Seremet Kürklü N, Karacil Ermumcu M, Ateş Z, Akçınar E, Akın H. Evaluation of the Relationship Between Nutrition Literacy and Health Literacy in Adults. J Nutr Diet. 2022;50:1-9. doi:10.33076/2022.B https://doi.org/10.33076/2022.BDD.1642

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics