Science electives in high school will improve nutrition knowledge but not enough to make accurate decisions

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Nutrition knowledge has been reported to have a weak positive effect on healthy eating behavior. This study aimed to determine if there was a difference in nutrition knowledge depending on the choice of science subject in high school and whether that affected the actual eating habits of college students in Japan.
SUBJECTS/METHODS: The subjects were 514 college students, the majority first-year students, in 3 cities in Japan. A questionnaire sur vey was conducted on elective subjects in science in high school, diet (11 items), lifestyle (5 items), and nutrition knowledge (34 questions). The preliminar y sur vey was conducted on 47 students in the fall of 2019, and the full-scale sur vey was conducted in May–June and October–November 2021 at the end of lectures for the first-year students.
RESULTS: The students in the high-score group (24–31 points, n = 180) had a higher intake of vegetables (odds ratio [OR], 1.78; 95% confidence inter val [CI], 1.12–2.82; P = 0.015) and breakfast (OR, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.03–2.60; P = 0.035), and a reduced intake of fast food (OR, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.14–0.51; P < 0.001) than those in the low-score group (6–19 points, n = 150).
Only the biology and chemistr y students had significantly higher nutrition scores than the other groups (all: P < 0.001), but no significant difference was found between the other groups. Understanding nutrition learned in elementar y and junior high school is appropriate, while molecular structure, recommended amount, and food poisoning were insufficient.
CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge of nutrition appears to have a positive effect on the actual eating habits of college students. Although biology and chemistr y in high school may help students understand the foundations of good nutrition, specialized food education may be required to make informed dietar y choices.