To analyze the relationship between the level of knowledge about
food, the degree of adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MeDi)
and nutritional status; an intervention study was performed with
pre- and post-intervention evaluation after three educational
sessions, designed according to the learning preferences of
health science ...»»»»
To analyze the relationship between the level of knowledge about
food, the degree of adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MeDi)
and nutritional status; an intervention study was performed with
pre- and post-intervention evaluation after three educational
sessions, designed according to the learning preferences of
health science university students. Sixty-five physiotherapy and
podology students participated. The mean age was 22.0 years
and participants were mostly male 58.5%. The majority were
normal weight (63.1%), but many (69.2%)needed to improve
their eating habits in order to comply with DiMe recommendations.
The statistical relationship found between the level of
previous knowledge in nutrition and nutritional status (Pearson’s
Correlation Coefficient= 0.7; p= 0.049) suggests that nutritional
education actions in this group could contribute to improving the
quality of the diet, nutritional status and future health of university
students. Educational sessions were able to improve the level of
knowledge regarding nutrition and food in the majority of students,
thus it is possible to consider the intervention as an efficient
tool for the transmission of nutritional knowledge in this group.
Key words: Food habits; Nutritional education; Mediterranean
diet; Learning strategies.^^^^