నైరూప్య

Awareness of Plant-Based Diets and Intermittent Fasting: A cross-sectional among college-aged students in Kuwait

Sharifa H Alkandari*, Fatemah M Alhasawi, Ahmed D Aldughpassi1, Anwar N Al-Harbi, Samar A Alsharqawi, Farhia A Mohammad, Ebtesam N Alshuraiaan

A cross-sectional study was conducted on female students only aged 18-35 at college of life sciences, Kuwait University to investigate the correlation between the level of nutrition education and the knowledge, depth of knowledge, and accuracy of information of college-aged females regarding Intermittent Fasting (IF), Vegan and Vegetarian Diets (V/V). The participants were asked to fill out a self-administered survey that included demographics data and nutrition-related knowledge questions on IF and V/V diets. The study showed that the participants had demonstrated greater nutrition knowledge related to V/V nutrition compared to IF nutrition (n= 195, n=153 respectively). Young participants reported seeking nutrition-related information on diets majorly from social media platforms compared with other sources. A statistically positive correlation was found between IF knowledge and source of information (r=0.169, N=153, p=0.037), while a non-positive correlation was shown between V/V knowledge and source of information (r=0.169, N=195, p=0.282). This study recommends designing nutrition education intervention tools to improve nutritional awareness among young people to prevent nutrition-related diseases in the future. Use social media platforms to provide credible, evidence-based health information online and to improve the young population's general nutritional knowledge.