A Comparative Study on Nutritional Awareness Among Science and Non-Science Undergraduate Female Students
Nida Khan
, Mariyam Fatima
Nutritional Awareness, Food Literacy, Dietary Practices, Nutrition Education, Food Labels.
Abstract: Food is an essential part of all human beings, and thus is important to correct knowledge of food and its nutrition, especially for the quality of life of its young budding adults as they leverage the future of society. The present study investigates whether there is a significant difference between the level of nutritional awareness among undergraduate female students from non-science and science academic backgrounds. The study was conducted on 80 undergraduate students (n=40) students from B.Sc. and (n=40) students from B.A., comprising both hostelers and day scholars from Aligarh City of Uttar Pradesh. A self-designed structured questionnaire containing 15 close-ended questions regarding the assessment of dietary knowledge, nutritional awareness, eating habits, and food labeling was prepared and administered via Google Forms. The scoring was done by giving one mark for each correct answer and zero marks for every incorrect answer, and the data was interpreted in two ways, viz. calculating the percentage of correct and incorrect responses for each question for science and non-science groups separately. To test the hypotheses, an independent ‘t’-test was applied to assess the significant difference between the mean scores of the two groups. The outcomes of the study reveal that there was a significant (p=0.003) difference in dietary knowledge between the two groups. The study’s conclusion also disclosed a significant (p=0.003) difference in Nutritional Awareness between the two groups. The results also revealed that there is no significant (p=0.881) difference between the eating habits of the two groups chosen. The results of this study suggest that despite differences in dietary knowledge and nutritional awareness, the students tend to have similar eating habits implicating; they do not apply this awareness in their daily life. As a remedial step towards this trend, educational institutions and other stakeholders should make strategic efforts to develop a nutrition and health-oriented curriculum mandatory for the students, along with the recruitment of nutritionists and dieticians for monthly diet planning and follow-ups as a mandatory duty. Institutions help their adolescents build healthy physical and mental foundations by encouraging the practice of consuming healthy foods and sustaining good nutrition throughout these impressionable formative years. The study has value because it intends to determine the nutritional awareness of female college students, which will guide future research on this issue. It aims to facilitate formulating and implementing college-level strategies to address this issue
"A Comparative Study on Nutritional Awareness Among Science and Non-Science Undergraduate Female Students", IJSDR - International Journal of Scientific Development and Research (www.IJSDR.org), ISSN:2455-2631, Vol.8, Issue 9, page no.558 - 567, September-2023, Available :https://ijsdr.org/papers/IJSDR2309081.pdf
Volume 8
Issue 9,
September-2023
Pages : 558 - 567
Paper Reg. ID: IJSDR_208524
Published Paper Id: IJSDR2309081
Downloads: 000347058
Research Area: Science
Country: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
ISSN: 2455-2631 | IMPACT FACTOR: 9.15 Calculated By Google Scholar | ESTD YEAR: 2016
An International Scholarly Open Access Journal, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed Journal Impact Factor 9.15 Calculate by Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar | AI-Powered Research Tool, Multidisciplinary, Monthly, Multilanguage Journal Indexing in All Major Database & Metadata, Citation Generator
Publisher: IJSDR(IJ Publication) Janvi Wave