Abstract :
Nutrition knowledge is defined as knowledge of concepts and process related to nutrition and health. It includes knowledge of diet and health, diet and disease, foods representing major source of nutrients, dietary guidelines and recommendations. It plays an important role in raising awareness and ultimately health of society. The study was conducted among 60 students (30 boys and 30 girls) from all colleges of RPCAU who were residing in University hostel and studying in seventh semester. In order to extract relevant information a schedule was developed for personal interview. It was pretested before the start of the research work. For testing the nutritional knowledge, 138 questions related to nutrition impacting health were asked through developed interview schedule. To assess the nutritional status anthropometric and clinical examination were evaluated by personal meeting. Haemoglobin level was estimated by Sahli?s method through expert lab technician. Significant difference in the knowledge level between boys and girls was observed. Knowledge level of girls was better in comparison to boys. Majority of both boys (86.66%) and girls (63.33%) were within normal BMI range. Among girls there was the case of underweight (23.33%) and overweight (13.34%). Though the percentage of underweight and overweight was opposite to the girls among boys, still there was a vast difference between underweight percentage of girls (23.33%) and boys(3.33%). majority of male and females students (28.33 & 26.66 %) having haemoglobin level in the range of 10-12g/dl followed by 21.66 percent of male comes in the range of 12-16g/dl. In case of female students, 21.66 percent having haemoglobin level in the range of 8-10g/dl and 1.66 percent in the range of 6-8g/dl. Correlation was found between nutritional knowledge and haemoglobin level of the students. Boys were having less nutrition knowledge that clearly showed negative impact on their health. Hence, it recommended that the knowledge of nutrition is utmost important for all.
Keyword :
Nutritional knowledge, Nutritional status, Anthropometric, Hemoglobin, BMI.