A Study on Influence of Formal Food and Nutrition Education on Dietary Behaviour among Female Young Adults

Abstract

The dietary behaviour of female young adults is crucial as it has an influence on their health as well as that of the future generations. The students of home science study one course on fundamentals of food and nutrition, which consists of an introduction to basic concepts such as food groups, balanced diet, recommended dietary allowances, the macro and micro nutrients, nutrition through the life cycle and basics of diet therapy. In this study an attempt was made to understand the influence of this nutrition education as part of the degree programme on dietary behaviour of female the young adults. The study consisted of two components: (a) Assessing nutritional status of the subjects based on body mass index. (b) Collection of data using interviewer administered structured questionnaire to obtain information on dietary behaviour.

The results of this research indicated that nutrition courses increased nutrition knowledge but did not promote desirable dietary behaviour except in a marginal way. The fact that 50% of subjects of both home science and non home science students are malnourished is a matter of serious concern and so nutrition education with academic commitment could be a time and cost effective way to improve nutritional behaviour of college students regardless of their area of specialization and gender. But the focus of nutritional education should be to improve the knowledge, attitude as well as practice so that desirable dietary behaviour can be adapted by the young adults.