Comparision of the salt consumption habits and knowledge of the 1st year and 6th year medical faculty students

Abstract

Objective: World Health Organization recommends maximum 5 gr of salt consumption in a single day. However in our country and all over the World, the salt consuption rate is much more than this value. In this study our aim was to determine and compare the salt consumption habits and knowledge of 1st year and 6th year medical school students. Material and Methods: All of the data was gathered from 279 students by face to face questionnaire. The dependent variables of the study were knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of students about salt consumption and the independent variables were questions about the physical characteristics, the education levels of their families, medical history of the participants and their families, their socio-cultural levels and nutritional habits. Results: 193 of the 279 students were 1st year student and 86 of them were 6th year student. Although the proportion of students who said that they knew the harm of excessive salt use to the body was 76% in grade 1 and 94% in grade 6. The proportion of those who supported salt restriction in restaurants was 41% and 65%, respectively. Students who answered that they know the daily salt recommendation were 18% and 48%, however the ratio of the students who knew the correct value was 79% and 75% respectively. The mean average answer given to the daily recommended salt consumption amount was 5.72.7 g in the 6th year students and 4.71 g in the first year students (p=0.033). Conclusions: As a result, in this study which was conducted in one of the medical faculties of our country, it was observed that the level of consciousness of medical faculty students about salt consumption increased from the 1st grade to the 6th grade, but still, the awareness of the majority of them was low.