Knowledge on Diet Related Chronic Diseases among Tertiary Students in the Ho Municipality of Volta Region, Ghana

Abstract

Diet-related chronic diseases are long-term diseases that are largely preventable. Such diseases can result from poor eating habits. The purpose of this study was to examine tertiary students’ knowledge of diet-related chronic diseases and dietary practices. The design used was a descriptive cross-sectional survey. The sample of 273 participants was drawn from 2 universities in the Ho Municipality of the Volta Region of Ghana. Purposive sampling techniques were adopted for selecting the participants. Structured interviews and dietary assessment were used to collect information on respondents’ knowledge on dietrelated chronic diseases. Both SPSS and Microsoft Excel were used to analyze the data. Most participants (98%) had heard about diabetes, hypertension and obesity. The study found that students consume various categories of food average 5 days in a week. Knowledge of diet-related chronic diseases had a significant association (p < 0.001) with dietary practices. Tertiary students in the Ho Municipality had good knowledge of diet-related chronic diseases. Students who had good knowledge of the diseases had better dietary diversity. As knowledge of diet-related chronic diseases increased, dietary practices improved.