This study was planned and conducted on high school students in the District of Malatya to determine their food related beliefs, concerns and attitudes; A questionnaire which was formed according to the aim of the study was employed to 658 high school students (mean age 15.64±0.87 years, 48.0% males and 52.0% females) which were chosen with sampling method of random stratification in the District of Malatya in May 2004. The high schools were chosen randomly.
No statistical correlation was found on the concern levels and the mean frequency of the dietary consumption of food that include high levels of fat-sugar-vitamin content of their diets. More girls compared to boys were concerned about the nutrients in the food. Of the boys 73 % and of the girls 83 % believe that food had effect on health. Of the boys 41 % and of the girls 63 % believe that fried food had negative effect on health (p=0.001) eightyfive percent of the girls compared to 65 % of the boys agreed on the sentence “eating too much fat cause heart diseases”
In conclusion most of the students had positive attitude and believe in scientific facts about the food. Positive attitudes were significantly more frequent among girls. In the light of these results, arrangement of regular and continuous educational programs in schools on nutrition for positive dietary behaviors; providing information on potentially harmful effects and the presence of mass media control mechanisms for dietary information are recommended.
Key Words: Adolescent, Food, Nutrition, Beliefs, Attitudes
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