Correlation between Religiosity and Nutritional Behavior in Students of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd
 
Ameneh Marzban; MSc¹, Azadeh Nadjarzadeh; PhD^2,3, Elham Karimi-Nazari; MSc², Vahid  Rahmanian; PhD⁴, Asma  Farrokhian; PhD⁵  & Mehran Barzegaran; BSc^*6
 
1 Student Research Committee, School of Public of Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
² Nutrition and Food Security Research Center, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
³ Department of Nutrition, School of Public of Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
⁴ Research Center for Social Determinants of Health, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran
⁵ Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Public of Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
⁶ Noncommunicable Diseases Research Center, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran.
 

 
Introduction

Religion, as an effective factor on all societies and at all times, has helped the human beings to meet their needs. Religion is the main pillar of the culture for every nation and guides the society (Hassanvand Amouzadeh, 2016). Religious orders and ceremonies are factors that can be used effectively in promoting the quality of life (Paiva et al., 2014). Religious attitude considers God as the centerpiece of affairs and regulates the values, morals, customs, and human behaviors with each other and nature (Kashfi et al., 2016).
Food, as one of the inherent or physiological needs, is the most important factor in the survival of people and longevity of life. Today, bad and harmful nutrition is one of the most important and common nutritional problems of young people (Eslami et al., 2015, Iesazadeh et al., 2018). In Iran, personal behaviors such as dressing, eating, walking, etc., are influenced by the West culture and family is not pursued by the experts very seriously (Salehi et al., 2016). A large part of Iran's young population is made up of students (Zamanian et al., 2013). Students as the driving force and positive energy source play a major role in determining the political, social, and cultural development of societies and have an important effect on the health of the community (Hashemi et al., 2018). Students constitute the most dynamic part of each society and their health is largely necessary for the community health. Hence, patterns of students' health behavior should be considered (Freedman and Connors, 2011). A high percentage of the country's population has obesity and overweight, which causes cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and various types of cancers. Obesity and overweight are also among the main reasons for changing the pattern of consumption and undesirable behaviors of food (Khan et al., 2019, Rezaee et al., 2018). Religion prescribes a healthier lifestyle for individuals, which has a positive effect on health (Khodaveisi et al., 2016, Marzban et al., 2017). The Islamic Nutrition Pattern is a collection of foods and beverages as well as eating habits and behaviors emphasized in various Islamic sources. Nutrition is one of the six principles for preserving health in the traditional Iranian medicine. In religious doctrines, principles of eating and drinking are very important. Inappropriate nutrition can be considered as one of the most important factors in many diseases, such as diabetes, high blood lipids, and cardiovascular disease. Traditional medicine considers inappropriate nutrition as a very important factor in the physiopathology of diseases (Iesazadeh et al., 2018, Marzban et al., 2018).
Considering the impact of religion on different aspects of human health, this study investigated the relationship between religion and nutritional behavior. Therefore, this study investigated the correlation between religiosity and nutritional behavior of students in Yazd Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences.
Materials and Methods
Design and participants: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the correlation between religiosity and nutritional behavior among students of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd. The statistical population of this study included all students of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences. Initially, 30 students were evaluated and the sample size was calculated as 310 using P = 0.5, d = 0.05, and the following formula:n= Samples were selected by stratified sampling method. At first, students were classified based on their college degree (medical, dentistry, pharmacy, paramedical, health, nursing and midwifery, as well as international campus) and the sample size was estimated based on the proportion of each category to the total population.
Finally, a total of 297 questionnaires were filled out and entered the study. The explanations were about how to answer the questions, volunteering procedure of participating in the research, confidentiality of information, and not mentioning the students' names in the questionnaires.
Measurements: Three self-administered questionnaires were administered to collect data; demographic check list, Muslim religiosity measure, and questionnaire of nutritional behavior by Iesazadeh et al. with confirmed validity and reliability coefficient of 0.83 (Iesazadeh et al., 2018). The checklist of demographic information included variables such as age, gender, marital status, educational level, school of study, and place of residence. The Muslim religious measure was adapted to Islam regulation and especially Shia by Serajzade based on Glacier and Stark’s Pattern. This questionnaire has 26 questions and measures four following dimensions of religiosity: religious beliefs (7 questions), empirical or religious emotions (6 questions), religious effects (6 questions), and religious practices (7 questions. ( Questions should be answered on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 to 5. Thus, scores ranged from 26 to 130, scores under 65 showed negative attitudes, and scores over 65 represented good attitudes.
The nutritional behavior questionnaire includes 25 questions scored from 1 to 5 on the Likert scale. Thus, the attainable scores range from 25 to 125; scores lower than 63 show negative behaviors and scores higher than 63 represent positive behavior.
Data analysis: Collected data were analyzed by SPSS16 using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation and frequency), chi-square, and Pearson correlation coefficient.
Results
The mean age of participants was 24.24 ± 4.83 years (age range: 18-35) and 50.16% of them were under 24 years (n = 149). According to findings, 57% of participants were male (n = 169), 72.4% were single (n = 215), 33% were from the public health school (n = 98), 34.34% were undergraduate (n = 148), and 72.10% lived in dormitory (n = 214) (Table 1).
As shown in Table 2, educational level and school of study had a significant statistical relationship with the dependent variable (religious attitude). However, no significant relationship was observed between gender, age, marital status, school of study, and place of residence with attitude score. According to the results, a significant relationship was found between gender and nutritional behavior. However, nutritional behavior had no significant relationship with marital status, place of residence, age, educational level, and school of study. Moreover, 52.39% and 58.21% of students had positive religious attitude and positive nutritional behavior, respectively. A statistically significant relationship was observed between nutritional behavior and religious attitude (P = 0.01, R = 0.78).