Food literacy can described adequate? Optimizing cut-off scores for the short food literacy questionnaire (SFLQ)

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Preventing obesity and non-communicable disease is possible by making the right eating habits from early ages, therefore increasing food literacy level might be enforced in the preventive programs.

OBJECTIVE:

The objective of this study is to measure university students’ food literacy level using “A short food literacy questionnaire (SFLQ) for adults” and determining cut-off point compared with health literacy.

METHODS:

Questionnaire was about Newest Vital Sign (NVS) test, Turkey Health Literacy SCALE-32 (TSOY-32) and Short Food Literacy Questionnaire (SFLQ). A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed by calculating the specificity and sensitivity of the scale cut-off values, and the area under the curve (AUC) was computed.

RESULTS:

The score from SLFQ increased with the improvement of general health perception and having food label reading habit (respectively; p = 0.003; p < 0.001). The mean SFLQ score increases with the increased level of TSOY-32 health literacy (P < 0.001). Finally, according to the results, classification of individuals with SFLQ is≥31 points as Adequate-Excellent food literacy and < 31 points as Inadequate-Limited food literacy.

CONCLUSION:

Describing food literacy in two categories will be easy to demonstrate the connection between food literacy and healthy food consumption behaviors.