Conocimientos sobre nutrición en universidades públicas y privadas, Lima- Perú

Introduction: The faculties of health sciences have incorporated the subject of nutrition in their curriculum in order to provide the basic knowledge to serve them in the care of the population. The interest of this research lies in measuring the knowledge of nutrition in the different public and private universities in Metropolitan Lima. Objective: To identify the level of knowledge about nutrition of health science students in public and private universities in Lima. Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional study, carried out on 197 students from public and private Health Sciences universities, being a convenience sampling due to the accessibility to the sample. The data was obtained from an adapted questionnaire of 30 questions and it was developed virtually with questions about knowledge of nutrition. Statistical tests Mann Whitney U, Kruskall Wallis and the Chi-square test were performed. Results: The level of knowledge about nutrition of the university students was: low 35,5%, regular 34,5% and high 30%. The level of knowledge is different depending on the type of university (p<0,000), depending on the specialty they are different (p<0,000). There is a relationship between the level of knowledge about nutrition with the academic cycle (p=0,00) and the age (p=0,04) of the students. Conclusion: The level of knowledge about nutrition is low in health sciences students and the knowledge is different according to specialty and type of university. Knowledge about nutrition is elementary in health specialties, to contribute to multidisciplinary work with the nutritionist.