The level of knowledge on nutrition and its relation to health among Polish young men.
BACKGROUND
Men are less than women interested in nutrition and health. Also low is their nutritional knowledge. More than 25% of men are unwilling to increase their knowledge about food and nutrition. The main sources of men's knowledge about lifestyle including nutrition consist of Internet, colleagues and family. The low level of knowledge about nutrition and health among men is worrying especially in the context of their incidence of chronic non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, higher than in women.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to determine the level of knowledge on nutrition and health among young men.


METHODS
The study included 107 men aged 19-34 years from different places and backgrounds in Poland. Men were selected by the snowball method. The study was conducted using an authors' validated questionnaire containing six types of closed questions (85 detailed questions in total). For statistical analysis Chi(2) test was used (p≤0.05).


RESULTS
Almost 42% of men under the study were overweight or obese, and less than ¼ declared high physical activity, most showed (on a 4-point scale) sufficient (45%) or low level (40%) of knowledge of nutrition and health. Younger respondents had higher knowledge than older ones. Very low was the respondent's awareness of an energy content of products, sources of high quality protein and amount of recommended vegetable and fruit consumption. The well-known were the reasons for civilisation diseases and the effect of dietary fibre. The internet was the main source of nutritional knowledge and health related information followed by: colleagues and family.


CONCLUSIONS
The majority of men presented sufficient or low knowledge about food, nutrition and their relation to health. Young men should be encouraged to participate in various forms of nutritional and health education. This would increase the chance to avoid civilisation diseases.
Department of Human Nutrition, Faculty of human Nutrition and Consumer Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW), Warsaw, Poland.
Anna
A
Kołłajtis-Dołowy
Department of Human Nutrition, Faculty of human Nutrition and Consumer Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW), Warsaw, Poland.
Katarzyna
K
Żamojcin
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D004032:Diet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004034:Diet Surveys / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002149:Energy Intake; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011044:Poland; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult