Nutritional Knowledge of the Mediterranean Diet Is Associated with Positive Attitudes and Adherence in a Non-Mediterranean Multi-Ethnic Society

Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to understand how the public in a non-Mediterranean multi-ethnic society perceived the Mediterranean dietary pattern (MDP) and its general health benefits. A total of 373 participants took part in this study. Most of the sample were young adults, females and had been living in Australia for over 10 years. Knowledge of the MDP score, attitudes towards the MDP score and an adherence to the MPD score were measured. Normality of variables was tested. Simple linear regression and Chi-squared tests were conducted to examine associations. ANOVA tests were used to report participants’ demographics across various attitudes scores. Less than half of participants were aware of the MDP guidelines, food choices and health benefits. As for adherence to the MDP, 20% of the sample were found to have high adherence to the MDP. Results also showed that participants with high knowledge about the MDP were twice more likely to have higher MDP adherence rates, OR 95% CI = 2.3 (1.3, 4.0), p-value = 0.002. This paper provided new insights about the association between nutritional knowledge and adherence to the MDP in a multi-ethnic non-Mediterranean setting.