Nutritional habits among nursing students using Moore Index for Nutrition Self Care: A cross‐sectional study from the nursing school Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: The topics of under‐nutrition and over‐nutrition are important and have significant roles in adolescent life. These concepts must be explored in adolescents owing to the undesirable effects that being underweight or overweight causes. PURPOSE: To evaluate the nutrition habits among adolescents from King Saud University nursing school in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia using the Arabic Version of Moore Index for Nutrition Self Care. METHOD: This was a cross‐sectional study carried out at a King Saud University nursing school campus to evaluate the Nutrition habits among adolescents. Self‐care practises related to nutrition were assessed by using a self‐report questionnaire that consisted of 50 items assessed on a five‐point Likert scale. Data were collected between January to March 2019. FINDINGS: The study results revealed that most students 120 (85.7%) had fair nutritional habits, while 11 (7.9%) had good nutritional habits and 9 (7.9%) had poor nutritional habits. There was a significant difference between those who exercised regularly (mean 53.42) and those who did not exercise regularly (mean 46.83; p = .002). In addition, simple linear regression revealed that working out regularly was associated with the score on the nutritional questionnaire (β = −6.41; SE 2.5, p = .01). Results revealed no significant associations between gender or age and (p = .8; p = .9) nutritional score. CONCLUSION: To increase levels of good nutritional habits and awareness, it may be useful to adopt educational programs for dietary consumption and physical training promotion.