Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan: the nutrition knowledge, attitude and behavior of 19–64 years old adults

The purpose of this study is to understand nutrition knowledge, attitude, and behavior in Taiwanese adults. Results indicated that adults’ knowledge on “relationship between diet and disease” and “comparison of foods in terms of specific nutrients” is acceptable. However, they lack knowledge on “daily serving requirements” and “weight and weight loss”. Although they recognize the importance of nutrition, nutrition was not the major concern of food selection. Significant differences were found among gender and age groups. Females of most age groups are better than males in many aspects of nutrition knowledge, attitude and behavior except emotional and external eating behavior. Young (age 19–30) and prime (age 31–44) adults have better knowledge than that of middle adults (age 45–64), while prime adults hold a more positive attitude than young adults. As for nutrition behavior, prime and middle adults are better than young adults. Nutrition knowledge and attitude of adults in urban areas is generally better than those in suburban and remote areas. However, adults in urban areas perform “emotional and external cued eating” more frequently than those in suburban and remote areas. There are significantly positive correlations among nutrition knowledge, attitude and behavior; and attitude has stronger correlation (r=0.42) with behavior than knowledge does (r=0.27). Therefore, to achieve desirable eating behaviors, the adult nutrition education program should include knowledge of what constitutes a balanced diet and what constitutes being overweight. Proper strategies to enhance the behavioral motivation of healthy food selection must also not be neglected.