FOOD AND NUTRITION LITERACY (FNLIT) AND ITS PREDICTORS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN IRAN

Background and objectives: One of the most important personal skills to enable individuals to control the predictors of their health is food and nutrition literacy. Food and nutrition literacy like health literacy should be conceptualized as an asset and a protective factor. This study aimed to measure food and nutrition literacy and its predictive factors among urban 10-12 year-old children in Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was undertaken on 803 students (419 boys and 384 girls) aged 10-12 years from 44 elementary schools in Tehran city, Iran. Food and nutrition literacy (FNLIT) was measured by a locally designed and validated questionnaire consisted of 46 items in 7 subscales. Adjusted binary regression logistic was used to assess the extent to which various independent covariates may predict low food and nutrition literacy as dichotomized outcome variables. Results: Approximately 11.6% of students had low total food and nutrition literacy score. The majority (68.8%) of students had high scores in cognitive domain but was poor in skill domain (%2.6). The most important predictive factor of low total food and nutrition literacy was lower level of maternal education (OR=0.29, CI=0.09-0.87). The most important predictive factor of low nutritional health knowledge were father age in 30-40 year-old compared with younger fathers (OR=0.12, CI=0.02-0.57) and Azeri ethnicity (OR=3.4, CI=1.35-8.71). Girls compared to boys (OR=0.30, CI=0.15-0.59) and students in 6th grade compared with those in 5th grade (OR=0.51, CI=0.28-0.93) had higher level of food choice literacy. Other predictive factors of low food choice literacy were lower mother education level (OR=0.16, CI=0.04- 0.56) and younger age of mothers (OR=0.45, CI=0.21-0.96). Girls had lower level of critical food and nutrition literacy than boys (OR=1.57, CI=1.14-2.15). Probability of low critical literacy in later- birth children was higher than first-birth children (OR=1.50, CI=1.00-2.25). The students whose fathers' were older (≥ 46 years old) had better level of critical literacy (OR=0.56, CI=0.33-0.94). Conclusions: Findings showed that despite desirable scores in cognitive domain, different aspects of food and nutrition literacy skills in primary school students are quite low. In planning future programs to promote food and nutrition literacy, more emphasis on skill development, considering socio-demographic predictors is recommended.