Knowledge and practice of dietary habits and healthy lifestyle among sample of clients above 18 years old attending primary healthcare centers in Baghdad

Abstract

Background:  Nutrition is an important factor for promoting and maintains health and it depends on the quality and the type of food. Knowledge and practice of dietary habits play an essential role in preventing the morbidity and mortality of non-communicable diseases.

Aims: 1. To assess the knowledge and practice of dietary habits and healthy lifestyle among clients above 18 years attending PHCCs in Baghdad. 2. To show the statistically significant association between the sociodemographic characteristics and knowledge and practice of clients about healthy lifestyle and dietary habits.

Design: Cross sectional study was done from beginning of February to end of April 2016.  Convenient sample (300 clients)   was participated. The questionnaire was filled by direct interview with the participants asking them about the knowledge and practice of diet and lifestyle. P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: From (300) participants (85%) of them have good knowledge score. There was statistically significant association between knowledge and gender,   educational level, occupation and the residence. The practice of the clients was poor, about (11%) of them have good score and there is no statistically significant association between the sociodemographic characteristics of the clients and the practice of them toward dietary habits and healthy lifestyle.

Conclusion: Three quarters of the participants have good knowledge while only small portion (less than one quarter of them) have good practice. Thus there was high statistical significant association between the sociodemographic characteristics of the clients and the knowledge, while there was no statistical significant association between them and the practice.