La educación nutricional y su relación con los hábitos alimentarios en estudiantes de Ciencias de la Salud de una universidad privada del Perú

Abstract

The study carried out aims to show the relationship between nutritional education and eating habits in Health Sciences students at a private Peruvian university. The research approach is quantitative and the research design is non-experimental of a cross- sectional type. The data of this study arise from a non-probabilistic sample made up of 342 students from the Universidad Privada del Norte from Lima, Peru who belong to the professional careers of Nutrition and Dietetics (n = 90), Nursing (n = 85), Obstetrics (n = 85) and Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation (n = 82) The unit of analysis was made up of students who took the subject of Introduction to Nutrition in the academic year 2019-II. It is observed that of the total, 47% of Health Sciences students have a moderate level of nutritional education, followed by 35% of students with a low level and 18% has a high level of nutritional education. Regarding eating habits, 39% of all students have a moderate level, followed by 32% who has a low level and 29% has a high level. It is evidenced that the representative students of the population have an adequate education regarding the importance of water consumption and verification of the expiration date of packaged products. In addition, they have adequate habits regarding the consumption of the first meal of the day and fruit. Likewise, it is concluded that the nutritional education received so far and their eating habits are mostly acceptable, but not outstanding. This implies that their knowledge of nutrition does not necessarily have a decisive influence on their eating practices. No great difference was found between the aforementioned careers regarding nutritional education received and eating habits.