Assessment of eating behaviors and food Habits of veterans in Zahedan City (South-East of Iran)

Abstract Aim: Veterans may have improper eating behaviors and food habits. Therefore, this study is designed to investigate the eating behaviors and food habits of veterans via the nutritional knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) model in Zahedan City. Methodology: In a descriptive, cross-sectional study, 369 veterans admitted to the Veterans Foundation in Zahedan were selected. After recording demographic characteristics, we assessed participants’ eating behaviors, nutritional knowledge, attitude, and practice through a questionnaire. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS software (version 21). Findings: According to the assessment of food habits, the results showed that most participants consumed 3 meals (51.20%), and then salty foods, fried potato, eggplant and vegetables in golden form and/or roasting respectively. The most intake oil was liquid as frying oils. They mostly stored raw meat and bread in plastic containers and consumed tea, coffee and watery foods in warmish form. In general, nutritional knowledge, attitude and practices of participants showed that 72.90%, 63.40%, and 19.80% had a good status, respectively. It was observed a negative correlation between age and knowledge (R2=-0.12, P= 0.01) and a positive relation between family size and practice (R2=0.14, P=0.005). Conclusions: The results indicate that majority of studied population followed a proper frying method, a suitable oil consumption, and a proper meat preservation method, they used salty foods and mostly plastic containers. In addition to veterans had nutritional knowledge, including a good status for knowledge and attitude and a moderate status for practice which needs to planning and improvement.