BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Youth is the crucial stage between childhood and adulthood during which an individual acquires new behavior and practices including dietary habits, that may be influenced by his peers, social circle, nutrition knowledge level and other factors. The increase in awareness of young adults is of special importance from the perspective of health and prevention of obesity related chronic diseases. To measure the nutrition literacy level of university students using the Turkish version of Adolescent Nutrition Literacy Scale (ANLS). We evaluated their food habits using the Adolescent Food Habit Checklist (AFHC) tool and analysed it, if the eating habits were affected by nutrition literacy level. SUBJECTS/METHODS A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on randomly selected 276 students studying in the Faculty of Health Sciences of Istanbul Aydin University, Turkey. Data was collected by means of ANLS and AFHC tools by face to face interview method. SPSS statistical sofware (IBM SPSS Statistics 19) was used to analyse the obtained data. RESULTS Participants comprised of 47.1% males and 52.9% females with mean age of 20.0 ± 1.60 years. Mean body mass index (BMI) was determined as 22.4 ± 3.76 (23.6 ± 3.63 males 21.3 ± 3.57 females). Functional, interactive and critical nutritional literacy scores for male participants were 22.49 ± 5.71, 17.45 ± 4.84, and 28.28 ± 7.13 respectively (total 64.98 ± 10.15). For females the values were 24.66 ± 5.13, 20.17 ± 4.28, and 32.20 ± 5.65 (total 69.72 ± 8.59) respectively. For all the three sub-categories of nutrition literacy, the scores acquired by females were significantly higher than males ( P < 0.001). In the AFHC tool, the mean score acquired by males were 9.26 ± 4.18 whereas for females it was 10.37 ± 3.40 significantly higher as compared to males ( P = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS The food habits of female participants were better than males; in accordance with their nutrition literacy status. It may be concluded that food habits are influenced by nutrition literacy and therefore stress much be given to increase the nutrition awareness among children youth as well as adults.

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Introduction European societies are rapidly becoming multicultural. Cultural diversity presents new challenges and opportunities to communities that receive immigrants and migrants, and highlights the need for culturally safe healthcare. Universities share a responsibility to build a fair and equitable society by integrating cultural content in the nursing curricula. This paper aims to analyze European student nurses´ experience of learning cultural competence and of working with patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. Materials and methods A phenomenological approach was selected through a qualitative research method. 7 semi-structured focus groups with 5–7 students took place at the participants’ respective universities in Spain, Belgium, Turkey and Portugal. Results 5 themes and 16 subthemes emerged from thematic analysis. Theme 1, concept of culture/cultural diversity, describes the participants’ concept of culture; ethnocentricity emerged as a frequent element in the students’ discourse. Theme 2, personal awareness, integrates the students’ self-perception of cultural competence and their learning needs. Theme 3, impact of culture, delves on the participants’ perceived impact of cultural on both nursing care and patient outcomes. Theme 4, learning cultural competence, integrates the participants’ learning experiences as part of their nursing curricula, as part of other academic learning opportunities and as part of extra-academic activities. Theme 5, learning cultural competence during practice placements, addresses some important issues including witnessing unequal care, racism, prejudice and conflict, communication and language barriers, tools and resources and positive attitudes and behaviors witnesses or displayed during clinical practice. Conclusion The participants’ perceived level of cultural competence was variable. All the participants agreed that transcultural nursing content should be integrated in the nursing curricula, and suggested different strategies to improve their knowledge, skills and attitudes. It is important to listen to the students and take their opinion into account when designing cultural teaching and learning activities.

Background: Within the European higher education context, students and lecturers are encouraged to engage in teaching and learning activities abroad. This frequently involves using a second language and being exposed to students and lecturers from culturally different backgrounds. Objective: To design a model for teaching and learning cultural competence in a multicultural environment (CCMEn). Design: Theory development from empirical experience, research, and scholarly works. Method: This model was developed based on our experience of teaching and learning cultural competence in a multicultural environment in a nursing education context; it rests on three pillars, namely, Coyle’s Content and Language Integrated Learning educational approach, the concept of social and emotional learning, as defined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning, and the existing literature surrounding teaching and learning cultural competence in higher education. Results: The CCMEn model is intended to guide the process of teaching and learning cultural competence in a multicultural environment through the use of a second language and has been adapted from existing educational approaches and theory. Conclusion: Teaching and learning in multilingual and multicultural contexts in Europe is becoming more common. Students who learn alongside students and teachers from different cultural backgrounds need to be supported from an academic, linguistic and socioemotional perspective. We believe that the CCMEn model can serve as a guide to enhancing student learning in this context.

Background: European nurses are expected to provide appropriate care for patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. However, there is limited knowledge and understanding of this process. The aim of this study was to analyse the perceptions of culture and experiences of caring for patients from diverse cultural backgrounds of a purposive sample of qualified nurses from four European countries, namely Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. Methods: A qualitative phenomenological approach was selected in order to understand complex phenomena through the participants’ lived experiences, meanings and perspectives. Individual interviews and focus groups took place with 28 staff nurses and 11 nurse managers from four European countries. The sociodemographic and cultural characteristics of the sample were described and analysed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were transcribed verbatim, translated into English and analysed following Braun and Clark’s phases for thematic analysis. Results: Five themes and twelve subthemes emerged from thematic analysis of the transcripts. The themes included: (1) relevance of culture for nursing; (2) culture in the healthcare service; (3) qualities of the healthcare professionals; (4) challenges to culturally competent care; (5) becoming a culturally competent nurse. Conclusions: There are challenges to the delivery of culturally congruent care, namely language and communication difficulties, prejudices and stereotyping in the health service, a tendency for ethnocentrism, a lack of education and training in cultural competence and a lack of support from the health service to facilitate new ways of acting.

Cultural competence is an essential component in providing effective and culturally responsive healthcare services, reducing health inequalities, challenging racism in health care and improving patient safety, satisfaction and health outcomes. It is thus reasonable that undergraduate nursing students can develop cultural competency through education and training. The aim of this paper was to investigate nursing lecturers’ perception and experience of teaching cultural competence in four undergraduate nursing programs. A phenomenological approach was selected to illicit nursing lecturers’ perception of culture and experience of teaching cultural competence. Semi-structured personal interviews were held with a sample of 24 lecturers from four European universities. The anonymized transcripts were analyzed qualitatively following Braun and Clark’s phases for thematic analysis. Six themes and fifteen subthemes emerged from thematic analysis of the transcripts. Cultural competence was not explicitly integrated in the nursing curricula. Instead, the lecturers used mainly examples and case studies to illustrate the theory. The integration of cultural content in the modules was unplanned and not based on a specific model. Nursing programs should be examined to establish how cultural content is integrated in the curricula; clear guidelines and standards for a systematic integration of cultural content in the nursing curriculum should be developed.

Objective: Balanced nutrition is of special importance in adolescence however, eating behaviors may be negatively influenced during this stage due to several factors. The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of a nutrition training program on nutrition literacy level and food habits of a group of adolescents. Methods: Adolescent Nutritional Literacy Scale (ANLS) and Adolescent Food Habits Checklist (AFHC) was used to determine the nutrition literacy level and food habits of 200 highschool students in Istanbul between September 2018 and April 2019. Effect of a face to face training, for 8 hrs over 4 weeks on nutrition related topics, were investigated on nutrition literacy level and food habits of the students.Results: Mean age of the students was 15 ± 0,66 years and 57% comprised of females. ANLS and AFHC scores in general, were higher in females, however the difference was statistically significant (p <0,05) only in pre-test scores. The average adolescent nutrition literacy (ANLS) score in males were 3,31 out of 5,0 and remained unchanged after training. In females however, it significantly decreased from 3,56 to 3,44 (p <0,05). Out of 19, AFHC scores decreased significantly from 9,80 to 8,94 in males and 10,03 to 9,34 in females (p <0,05) following training. Conclusion:A short nutritional training was not sufficiently effective in reflecting the positive change in nutrition literacy level and food habits among adolescents. Possible reasons should be investigated in depth and more comprehensive and longer training should be provided to increase nutritional awareness.

Abstract Problem Statement: The adolescence is a crucial stage between childhood and adulthood during which an individual acquires new qualities and practices including dietary habits that may be influenced by his peers and social circle. Purpose of the study: To determine the dietary habits of adolescents studying in high schools in Konya, Turkey where obesity has been determined to be considerably high. Methods: The population comprised of first year students registered for 2012-2013 academic year at five different high schools selected randomly in Konya. The study included a total of 643 individuals. Data regarding dietary habits of students were collected by means of Adolescent Food Habit Checklist (AFHC) whose validity and reliability studies for Turkish version had been previously published. Means, standard deviation and ANOVA tests were performed for data analysis. Findings and Results: The mean age was 15.18±0.57 years of which 65.2% were males. Body mass index evaluation indicated 51.8% of students were underweight, 39.5% normal and 8.7% overweight. Mean AFHC score of students were calculated as 9.17±3.70. Mean AFHC score obtained by females (9.97±3.67) were significantly higher than males (8.74±3.64) (p<0.01). AFHC scores obtained by overweight students were significantly higher than underweight and normal students (p<0.01). Conclusions and Recommendations: Dietary habits in Turkish adolescents were below optimal level. Higher AFHC scores obtained by overweight students as compared to normal suggested adequate nutritional knowledge is not a decisive factor in  determining dietary habits. Proper dietary habits gained at an early age, is important in bringing up healthy generations. Keywords: Adolescent, dietary habits, body mass index