Examining the Relationship Between Healthy Eating Habits in Individuals, Educational Status, Student Being and Various Variables

Abstract

The concept of food refers to plant and animal tissues that are edible and provide vital elements when taken into the body. Nutrients are generally obtained from plant and animal sources. Healthy nutrition is a nutritional approach that includes taking the nutrients the body needs in the right amounts and at the right times in line with adequate nutrition. Nutritional habits are effective in shaping the life of individuals. Having correct nutritional habits in school children can also reduce the risk of many health problems, including diabetes, coronary heart diseases, obesity and cancer, during adolescence, youth and adulthood. Health problems arise in people whose nutritional habits and knowledge are incorrect, their quality of lives may deteriorate and results such as obesity may occur.

Considering that nutrition and eating habits are so important in the healthy nutrition process of all segments of society, from babies to school-age children, from teenagers to adults; This study aimed to examine the relationship between healthy eating habits in individuals and various demographic variables such as educational status, marital status and gender. Research data was collected online between 22 December 2023 and 22 January 2024. The Attitude Scale towards Healthy Nutrition (HBITS) was used to collect data. The data obtained as a result of the application of measurement tools for the quantitative dimension of the study were analyzed with the SPSS for Windows 22.0 package program. When the research findings were examined, it was seen that 50.1% of the 869 participants were male, 57.7% were single, 41.3% were university graduates, 31.6% were students and 95.1% lived in the city. It was determined that the participants' attitudes towards healthy nutrition, knowledge about nutrition, feelings towards nutrition, positive nutrition and bad nutrition attitudes differed depending on their educational level. Regarding student status and eating habits, it has been observed that students and civil servants have more knowledge about nutrition than workers, students have more knowledge about nutrition than tradesmen, students' emotional attitudes towards nutrition are higher than other tradesmen and housewives, and housewives are higher than workers. Different results have been obtained in research on the relationship between nutritional attitudes and various other variables such as gender, body weight, and marital status.