Levels of Nutrition Literacy and Influencing Factors Among Vocational College Students in Guangxi, China

Abstract

Background Nutrition literacy (NL) is an indicator of nutrition status and is progressively applied in policy and research. Nevertheless, component skills of nutrition literacy, which are considered to be a crucial component of translating nutrition knowledge into positive dietary behaviour, have received little attention. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate NL and associated factors among vocational college students in Guangxi, China. Methods In this cross-sectional study, the participants included 1095 vocational college students aged 18–24 years in an ethnic minority area in Guangxi, China. The participants were assigned to low or high levels of NL and its five components (access, applying, interactive, media literacy, and decision-making skill) based on their median scores. We applied multiple logistic regression to investigate the associations between influencing factors and NL. Results Based on the results, 50.59% of the participants had low levels of NL. The influencing factors associated with NL, along with access and decision-making skills, included exercise, body mass index (BMI), and education and knowledge on the subject of nutrition. Moreover, BMI, nutrition education, and nutrition knowledge were affected by interactive and media literacy skills. Interestingly, only grade is influencing factors of applying skill with protective factor at sophomore (OR=0.20) and junior (OR=0.72). Conclusion The findings of the study indicate that exercise, BMI, nutrition education, and nutrition knowledge were affected by low NL levels. Therefore, improving NL might be an important step towards developing healthy dietary habits.