Nutrition knowledge, food habits and healthy attitude of graduates on diet related chronic non-communicable disease: a cross sectional study in the Southern Eastern University of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic diseases, are not transmitted from person to person, are of long duration and generally slow in progression. In Sri Lanka, diet-related chronic NCDs currently account for 18.3 percent of all deaths and 10.2 percent of public hospital expenditures. In 2025, chronic diseases are expected to account for 20.9 percent of all deaths. Implications of NCDs include reduced life expectancy, income and savings all of which have a great impact on the economic productivity of a country, bringing about the spiral of ill health and poverty. Graduates are an important section in the society and policy makers in future. Therefore, it is important to estimate the nutritional knowledge on the diet- related chronic NCDs among the graduates. A descriptive cross sectional study was undertaken to assess the nutrition knowledge on diet-related chronic NCDs among graduates of the south Eastern University of Sri Lanka. Purposive sampling method was used to select 200 graduates from different areas. Fifty (50) graduates from each batch from each faculty (Faculty of Applied Science, Faculty of Management studies and Commerce, Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Islamic Studies and Arabic language) were recruited. Questionnaires containing 36 questions [Knowledge of Applied Nutrition (KN), Food Preparation (KP) and Perceived Confidence in Cooking Skills (PC)] were distributed. Knowledge was assessed using a score system, descriptive statistics and SPSS software package. The overall knowledge of graduates was poor; not a single graduate was identified with good knowledge. Gender, home area, religious group of the respondents were not associated with the knowledge level (p>0.05). 33% of Applied Science graduates had a satisfactory level of knowledge and it was significant when compared to the other faculties (p<0.05). 64.5% of graduates had obtained their knowledge from newspapers and magazines whilst, 3.5% of the graduates had obtained their knowledge from the nutritionist / dietitian.