Investigating the level of nutritional literacy and its accompanying factors in Seminary students of Qom City in 2019

One of the effective factors in improving the health of individuals and communities is having proper nutrition and improving the level of nutrition literacy, which includes the skills of acquiring, processing, and understanding nutrition information with the purpose of making appropriate decisions in this field. Considering the existence of the capacity of religious missionaries and the importance of awareness of the clerics in creating a proper culture in the field of health and to confront with the misuse of people incomplete medical and religious information, in this study, the nutrition literacy of seminary students of Qom city, was evaluated for the first time.

This cross-sectional study was carried out with the participation of 176 seminary students over 18 years of age studying in the Seminary of Qom in 2019. The EINLA Adult Nutrition Literacy Questionnaire was used in this study. The height and weight of the participants, were also measured and their BMI was calculated.

The mean score of the nutrition literacy of the students, was 28.1 ± 3.1. The mean score was 29.2 ± 2.3 in women and 27.3 ± 4.1 in men. Most of the participants (87.5%), had adequate nutrition literacy and others (12.5%) had insufficient nutrition literacy. The highest score was related to the recognition of food groups and the lowest score was for the knowledge and skill of measuring food. There was a statistically significant difference between men and women in terms of nutrition literacy level (p = 0.001), indicating that women had better nutrition literacy compared men. No significant relationship was found between age, weight, and BMI with the participants' nutrition literacy status.

The level of nutrition literacy in most of the participants was assessed as sufficient. There was no significant relationship between nutrition literacy status with weight and BMI.