Effect of Food Literacy on Adherence to Mediterranean Diet and Anthropometric Measurements in Adults

Abstract

Objective This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between food literacy, adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MetDiet), and anthropometric measurements. Method In this study, 551 adults were evaluated. The defining features were questioned with the questionnaire form, Short Food Literacy Questionnaire (SFLQ), and Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS). Neck circumference, waist circumference (WC) measurements, waist to height ratio (WHtR), waist to hip ratio (WHR), and body mass index (BMI) were evaluated. The effect of the SFLQ scores on the anthropometric measurements and MEDAS scores was evaluated with linear and binary logistic regression analysis. Results The food literacy scores were low in individuals with overweight and obesity and have risk according to the waist circumference and waist to height ratio. Individuals with high adherence to the MetDiet had high food literacy. The food literacy had the most effect on waist circumference. There was a positive relationship between the food literacy and MetDiet scores when the crude and adjusted models were compared according to age, gender, education level, marital status, and BMI. According to crude and adjusted models, food literacy was effective on strict adherence to the diet (Wald=13.446), and a 1-unit increase in the food literacy increased strict adherence to MetDiet by 1.05 times (95% CI=1.03-1.09). Conclusion The results showed positive effect of food literacy on obesity-related anthropometric measurements and MetDiet.