Introduction: A healthy diet is crucial for the maintenance of health. Therefore, the aim of this work is to evaluate the perceptions towards a healthy diet among the participants with work or studies in areas related to diet and nutrition and those who did not.
Methods: Anonymous questionnaire data was collected in a cross-sectional study on a non-probabilistic sample of 902 participants living in Portugal.
Results: The results showed that the participants' perceptions were, in general, compliant with a healthy diet. However, significant differences were found between gender (p=0.004), between the different civil state groups (p=0.016), between the participants who were responsible for buying their own food and those who were not and also regarding the living environment. The variable area of work or studies also showed significant differences (p=0.001), so that people who had work or studies related to agriculture obtained a higher score. Regarding this variable, the mean values of nutrition and agriculture areas were not statistically different between them, but were statistically different from the mean values of psychology and health areas. The participants who had work or studies in areas showing diet and nutrition-related issues achieved a higher mean score (0.72±0.35) when compared to the participants who did not (0.58±0.30).
Conclusion: However, despite the results, it is important to continue developing campaigns that better communicate nutritional aspects, so that people can increase their knowledge on this subject.
Uvod: Zdrava prehrana je ključnega pomena za ohranjanje zdravja. Zato je cilj te študije oceniti dojemanje zdrave prehrane med v raziskavi sodelujočimi zaposlenimi in študenti, ki so profesionalno povezani s področjem prehrane, in tistimi, ki to niso.
Metode: Anonimni podatki iz vprašalnika so bili zbrani v medsektorski študiji z verjetnostnim vzorčenjem 902. sodelujočih, ki prebivajo na Portugalskem.
Rezultati: Rezultati so pokazali, da je dojemanje zdrave prehrane med sodelujočimi v študiji na splošno v skladu z zdravo prehrano. Pokazale pa so se izrazite razlike med spoloma (p = 0,004), med različnimi skupinami glede na zakonski stan (p = 0,016), med sodelujočimi, ki so odgovorni za nakup lastne hrane, in tistimi, ki to niso, ter glede na bivalno okolje. Različna področja dela ali študija so prav tako pokazala izrazite razlike (p = 0,001), kar pomeni, da imajo osebe, ki so zaposlene na področju kmetijstva ali študirajo kaj v zvezi s prehrano, na tem področju boljše rezultate. Na podlagi te spremenljivke se povprečne vrednosti iz področja kmetijstva statistično ne razlikujejo med seboj, vendar se statistično razlikujejo od povprečnih vrednosti s področja psihologije in zdravstva. Sodelujoči, ki so profesionalno kakorkoli povezani s prehrano, so dosegli višje povprečne rezultate (0,72 ± 0,35) v primerjavi z ostalimi (0,58 ± 0,30).
Zaključek: Kljub tem rezultatom je pomembno, da nadaljujemo s promocijo zdrave prehrane in ljudi izobražujemo in ozaveščamo o pomenu zdrave prehrane.
Keywords: Portugal; food areas; healthy diet; nutrition knowledge; perceptions; survey.