Sources of Nutritional Information among Adults

Diet-related information, behaviors, and attitudes are significant factors for building healthier nutritional patterns and preventing diseases.This study aimed to investigate the people’s preference of sources of nutritional information and the most effective sources. Methods: This descriptive online study was conducted in Shiraz, Iran. Recruitment of the participants was started in February 2020 and ended in March 2020. All 235 male and female participants were enrolled using simple randomization. Demographic variables and nutritional information sources were collected by an online questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of two parts including the first part containing demographic questions and the mostly used sources of nutritional information according to priority and the second part consisted of 12 questions about the most effective nutritional sources. Continuous data with normal distribution were expressed in number (%), and qualitative variables were assessed by Chi-Square test. Results: The most common and effective sources of nutritional information among the paricipants were social media (87%) and Instagram (41%), respectively. There was a significant difference between age and level of education in selecting effective sources of information (p≤0.001, p ≤0.001, respectively). Conclusion: Social media was recognized as the most effective source of nutritional information. In addition, more comprehensive studies that can survey all the influential factors in this field were suggested.