A Study on Nutrition Knowledge, Food Consumption Levels of the Food and Beverage Management Stııdents at

Abstract

This study was designed to assess nutrition knou'ledge and food coıısumption o f the Food and Beverage Management students (total o f 44 subjects, 30 females , 14 males) at Başkent University and to f in d out the effect o f nutrition education on the nutritional status o f th em. At the beginniııg and at the eııd o f the academic semestre, students’ nutrition kııo\vledge w ere obtained by a questionnaire and three days o f fo o d consumption levels o f the students were investigated by individual fo o d consumption s ur v ey. Also s tudents’ height and \veight \vere mecısured in order to determine BMI before and after nutrition education on the nutritional status. Data were evaluated by SPSS statistics program. As a resıılt o f the study; according to BMI before and dfter nutrition education, 23.4% o f the female were ıındenveight, 14.3% o f the males were ovenveight. The decrease after education was not statistically significant fo r f e males (t: 0.6, p> 0.05), but statistically significant fo r male subjects (t: 3.12, p< 0.01). Nutritional kno\vledge inereased in both female and male subjects and the difference was statistically significant (t: 11.2 p< 0.01, t: 7.6, p< 0.01 respectively). Before nutrition education, the consumption levels o f energy, prote in, calcium, iron, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin C for female; energy and riboflavin consumption levels o f male students \verefound to be belo\v their recjuirements. In both female and male students; depending on the education, the consumption levels o f calcium (p< 0.01) and vitamin A inereased (p< 0.05, p< 0.01 respectively), the consıımption levels offat, protein, energy and niacin decreased (p< 0.01). Also the consumption level o f iron \vere inereased in each gender but the dijference w a s not statıstically significant (p> 0.05). Vitamin C consumption levels decreased iti female students (p> 0.05), inereased iti male students (p> 0.05). Also nıost of the stııdents skipped the noon meals before and after nutrition education. But the percentage o f skipping meals redııeed by 40.9% after nutrition education.