A survey on the relationship between health literacy and fast food consumption in the general population of Fasa, A population-based study from southern Iran

Background and Aim: Based on the definition provided by World Health Organization (WHO), health literacy is a complex of social and cognitive abilities to obtain, understand, and apply health related information for promotion of health. It has been confirmed that peoples with higher levels of health literacy had more information about their health status. Fast food is defined by a convenience food purchased in self-service or carry out eating venues without wait service. Having appropriate healthliteracy may be affect the consumption of fast foods. We aimed to evaluate the effect of health literacy on the fast food consumption among a general populations.Methods: We evaluated health literacy and fast food consumption using appropriate questionnaire in 421 adult participant with age between 18-65 years in Fasa city, southern of Iran. Two step sampling cluster and then systematic sampling, was done. Data collection was done through demographic information questionnaire (sex, age, education level, occupation, income level, etc.) and a researchermade checklist on fast food consumption and the Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA) Questionnaire, which included 33 items and in 5 dimensions (reading, access, understanding, appraisal and decision making/ intention to behave) HELIA score to 4 categories: ‘inadequate’, ‘problematic’ (which together also define ‘limited’ health literacy), ‘sufficient and ‘excellent’ (which together also defined ‘desired’ health literacy):Inadequate= 0.0–50.0, Problematic= 50.1–66.0, Sufficient= 66.1–84.0 and Excellent=84.1-100. Data was harvested by face-to-face conversation. Results: Most of our participants used fast foods every few months (49.9%). In addition, peoples with low or unstable income used more fast foods than other peoples (P<0.05). Furthermore, sandwich and hotdog were the most consumed fast foods (60.8%) and pizza was in the next step (34.9%). Moreover, sausage and soda were the most seasoning foods (66.7%). Most of our peoples used fast food as dinner(67.9%) and in with their family (72.2%), which means of institutionalizing the consumption of this type of food in the family. Fun was the most reason for use of fast food (66.5%). Most of participants completely know about the raw materials for fast food and their adverse effects. Finally, we found that health literacy in who used fast foods was lower than who didn’t use fast foods. This difference also could see in the subscales of reading skills, critique, and decision-making. Conclusion: Differences in health literacy and its parts may affect the consumption of fast food. In addition, there was a negative relationship between health literacy and fast foods consumption which also seen in reading skills, critique, and decision-making.

Keywords:

Health literacy , fast food , reading skills , decision-making , general population