Investigation of The Nutrition Literacy Levels of Adults with Higher Education Graduate: A Sample of Academician Group

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to determine the nutritional literacy levels of adults with a higher education graduate and to examine their levels in terms of socio-demographic characteristics. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 320 voluntary academicians working at different universities in Turkey (male: 44.7% female: 55.3%; mean age: 37.7±10.0 years). The data of the research were collected by the online survey method. The “Evaluation Instrument of Nutrition Literacy on Adults (EINLA)” was used to determine the nutritional literacy levels of the participants. Results: In the study, it was determined that 96.3% of the participants had adequate level of nutrition literacy. In the section where the questions about the portion sizes of foods were included, it was found that half of the participants (50.0%) had had inadequate literacy. Nutritional literacy scores of women were found to be higher than men (p 0.05). Nutritional literacy scores decreased with increasing age (p 0.05). Nutritional literacy scores of those who were single, those with better income, those with chronic diseases and those with normal weight were closer to each other (p 0.05). Conclusion: As a result of the research; nutritional literacy levels of the participants were high in general. But; It was determined that the nutrition literacy level of the participants about the portion sizes was inadequate. It is thought that it may be beneficial to disseminate nutrition education programs that will be provided by health professionals in order to adopt the concept of nutritional literacy to the society and to increase the level of literacy in order to reduce health problems and improve the health level.