Exploring students' perception of subjective food literacy: A model of educational practice.

Autor: Adina Coman M; Department of Public Health, Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babeș- Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania., Mircea Chereches R; Department of Public Health, Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babeș- Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Heliyon [Heliyon] 2024 Mar 20; Vol. 10 (7), pp. e28478. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Mar 20 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e28478
Abstrakt: Introduction: Latest research showed that lower levels of food literacy led to poorer health outcomes and highlighted the importance of nutrition education to improve food literacy for the population. Although evidence at the global level exists, the scientific literature on food literacy in Romania is scarce; therefore, this article aims to explore the perception of subjective food literacy as an outcome of an educational model in a sample of university students from Romania.
Methods: The present study used a qualitative inductive approach using focus groups to explore the results from an educational "learning-by-doing" model regarding the perception of subjective food literacy. The sample consisted of 64 second-year students who participated in a class taught by one of the authors between October 2019 and February 2020 and later agreed to participate in the focus groups. All focus groups were audiotaped following participants' permission and transcribed verbatim. Data was analyzed with the QSR Nvivo 12 Pro software package using an inductive thematic analysis.
Results: Several themes and sub-themes emerged from the focus groups discussing prior information of participants regarding nutrition, change in nutrition knowledge (information about plant protein, information about soy and soy products, information about sugar and its effects on health, and additional nutrition information), modified perception of nutrition and food, dietary habits, short-term behavior changes, and aspects that helped them to have more information about nutrition (construction of the health campaign, pre-testing materials, and support offered by the professors). All participants reported acquiring new information about food and nutrition, modified perceptions about nutritional habits, and even reported short-term behavioral change as an outcome of the educational model.
Conclusions: Educational models using a learning-by-doing approach and combining formal and non-formal education can potentially affect students' subjective food literacy. Future research should explore university students' food literacy using evidence-based educational models.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(© 2024 The Authors.)
Databáze: MEDLINE