Knowledge, attitude and practices among college going girls in reference to their breakfast consumption pattern

Abstract

Objective: Breakfast skipping is being considered as a major public health concern among young adults, especially the girls. Nutrition knowledge has been reported to be one of predictors of this dietary behaviour. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the association between of nutrition related knowledge, attitude and practices with breakfast consumption habits of college going girls aged 18-23 years. Design: Data regarding nutrition knowledge, attitude and practices in relation to breakfast consumption was obtained by using a validated, pre-tested self-administered questionnaire. The subjects were classified into three groups according to total score obtained based on their knowledge, attitude and practices with breakfast consumption as Low, Moderate and High. In addition, correlation among knowledge, attitude and practices were also analysed to get better insight of the barriers that were responsible for the faulty habits of breakfast skipping. Setting: Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. Participants: College going girls aged 18-23 years (n=850). Results: Mean age of the participants was 18.95±1.40 years. Out of the total sample (n=850), 63% of the girls (n=536) were breakfast skippers. The findings related to knowledge, attitude and practices revealed that majority of them fall in the category of moderate. Significant correlation was found between knowledge attitude and practices of college going girls. Conclusions: The present study suggests that nutrition knowledge level is related to breakfast skipping among college going girls.