Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar 15:10:807526.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.807526. eCollection 2022.

Nutrition Literacy of Middle School Students and Its Influencing Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study in Chongqing, China

Mao Zeng  1   2   3   4 , Yuzhao Zhu  1   2   3 , Zhengjie Cai  1   2   3   5 , Jinli Xian  1   2   3   6 , Shengping Li  1   2   3 , Tiankun Wang  1   2   3 , Zumin Shi  7 , Manoj Sharma  8 , Yong Zhao  1   2   3   9
Affiliations

Nutrition Literacy of Middle School Students and Its Influencing Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study in Chongqing, China

Mao Zeng et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Nutrition literacy plays an important role in children's dietary habits and nutrition. This study aimed to analyse the status of nutrition literacy and its influencing factors amongst middle school students in Chongqing, China. "Nutrition literacy scale for middle school students in Chongqing" was used in 29 districts of Chongqing in September 2020. The scores of nutrition literacy and its' three sub-domains (functional, interactive and critical nutrition literacy) were divided into low and high groups based on their median scores. Binary logistic regression was used to measure the influencing factors of nutrition literacy. A total of 18,660 middle school students were included in this study. The median of nutrition literacy of middle school students was 61.68 (IQR = 14.37). Interactive nutrition literacy had the highest score (median = 70.00, IQR = 20.00), followed by functional nutrition literacy (median = 68.69, IQR = 14.14) and critical nutrition literacy (median = 45.83, IQR = 25.00). Students who were the minority (OR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.637-0.785), in senior high school (OR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.477-0.548), in rural areas (OR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.790-0.911), receiving school meal support from the government (OR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.591-0.664), with other caregivers' parenting (OR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.805-0.914), with parents having a low level of education and with an abnormal BMI [thin (OR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.837-0.990), overweight (OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.785-0.968), and obese (OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.767-0.902)] presented less probability of being a high level of nutrition literacy. Our results could assist public health authorities in developing strategies of nutrition literacy promotion for references and theoretical foundations.

Keywords: Chongqing; influencing factors; middle school students; nutrition; nutrition literacy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

    1. Kalkan I. The impact of nutrition literacy on the food habits among young adults in Turkey. Nutr Res Pract. (2019) 13:352–7. 10.4162/nrp.2019.13.4.352 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kazemi A, Zahraei NN, Nazarian N. The relation between intra- and interpersonal factors and food consumption level among Iranian adolescent girls. Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. (2016) 21:147–52. 10.4103/1735-9066.178235 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shi X, Tubb L, Fingers ST, Chen S, Caffrey JL. Associations of physical activity and dietary behaviors with children's health and academic problems. J Sch Health. (2013) 83:1–7. 10.1111/j.1746-1561.2012.00740.x - DOI - PubMed
    1. United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund,. The State of the World's Children 2019. Children, Food Nutrition: Growing Well in a Changing World. (2019). Available online at: https://www.unicef.org/reports/state-of-worlds-children-2019 (accessed October 14, 2019).
    1. Borges CA, Marchioni DML, Levy RB, Slater B. Dietary patterns associated with overweight among Brazilian adolescents. Appetite. (2018) 123:402–9. 10.1016/j.appet.2018.01.001 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types