An Evaluation of Nursing Students' Food Neophobia and Diet Quality

Abstract

Food neophobia affects food choice and is thought to have an effect on the healthy eating index. The purpose of this study is to evaluate food neophobia of nursing students and to determine whether it affects diet quality. In addition, it aims to examine the effect of changing demographics on food neophobia. The study was consisted of 155 nursing students. The data were collected online using the sociodemographic information form, the Food Neophobia Scale and the Healthy Eating Index-2015. In the analysis of the data, percentage, mean, Student's t test, Mann Whitney U, Anova and Kruskal Wallis tests and Spearman correlation analysis were used. 72.3% of the students participating in the study are women. 58.7% of them have poor diet quality and 32.3% of them need to improve their diet quality. The mean score of food neophobia is 37.31±10.39, and 13.5% of them are neophobic. Food neophobia was found to be significantly higher in those who do not work and those living in rural areas. It was determined that there is a statistically and significantly weak negative correlation between age and food neophobia, and weak positive correlation between age and the healthy eating index. The result of the study reveals that food neophobia varies with demographic conditions. When evaluated in terms of diet quality, it is seen that the diets of the students are weak or needed to be improved.