O conhecimento sobre rotulagem de alimentos e rotulagem frontal de estudantes ingressantes e concluintes de cursos de nutrição de universidades do Paraná e a influência nas suas escolhas alimentares

Abstract

Objective: To compare whether the period in which university students are in the nutrition course influences the knowledge of frontal labeling, after adjustment for sociodemographic variables. Methods: Convenience sampling. Participants were selected through a distance approach, via e-mail. Fifty-eight students entering and graduating from Nutrition courses at institutions located in Paraná were included in the research. 58 survey responses were received for the 22 questions about labeling. Results: The variables were included in blocks in the analysis, with three models in total. Model 1 was adjusted for demographic variables (sex, age), while in Model 2, the adjustment was for housing and marital status, in addition to sex and age. Finally, Model 3 included an income variable. All models included the main exposure (course period) in the analysis. The regression results were presented as odds ratios (OR) with their respective 95%CI. The statistical significance level used was 5%. This showed that final year students are 11.0 times more likely to know frontal labeling when compared to first year students, this result being statistically significant (95%CI: 1.66; 72.3, p=0.013). Conclusion: The undergraduate degree in nutrition provided students with greater knowledge about labeling, which could promote better eating habits in this population. The importance of this topic in graduation was perceived, as it promotes knowledge about labeling to students, and can be used as a nutritional education instrument, and reflect on Brazilian public health.