Browsing by Author "Sarić, M.M."
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- Environmental and Political Determinants of Food Choices: A Preliminary Study in a Croatian SamplePublication . Sarić, M.M.; Jakšić, K.; Čulin, J.; Guiné, RaquelProduction, processing, transporting, selling, and consumption of food are highly resource intensive. Therefore, if they are not well managed the consequences for the environment are far-reaching. This study aimed at investigating behaviors and attitudes of the Croatian population concerning the influence of environmental and political determinants of food choices, and the socio-demographic factors associated with pro-environmental behavior. Data analysis involved a non-probabilistic sample of 1534 adult participants from Croatia who responded to a validated questionnaire from November 2017 to March 2018. To test differences between sociodemographic groups, Welch’s t-test (two groups) and ANOVA (multiple groups) were used. The relationship between age and motivators of food choices was analyzed with Pearson’s r correlation coefficient. Participants reported a neutral rate of agreement with the items, with the exception of items related to food waste and food origin, for which they expressed a moderate amount of agreement. Socio-demographic factors that influence environmentally or politically concerned food choices in our study were age (older participants, p < 0.001), gender (women in comparison to men, p < 0.05), education level (higher education in comparison to elementary/high school, p < 0.05), marital status (married/cohabiting in comparison to unmarried, p < 0.05), responsibility for food supply (those who are responsible for food supply in comparison to those who are not responsible for food supply, p < 0.05), eating practices (participants with specific eating practices in comparison to participants without specific eating practices, p < 0.05), and smoking (those who have never smoked score and those who used to smoke in comparison to active smokers, p < 0.05). The results show that there are no statistically significant differences in environmental and political determinants of food choices based on the place of residence and employment status. The findings indicate that environmental and political determinants do not play a significant role in the food choices among the Croatian population.
- Knowledge about dietary fibres (KADF): development and validation of an evaluation instrument through structural equation modelling (SEM)Publication . Guiné, Raquel; Duarte, J.; Ferreira, M.; Correia, P.; Leal, M.; Rumbak, I.; Barić, I.C.; Komes, D.; Satalić, Z.; Sarić, M.M.; Tarcea, M.; Fazakas, Z.; Jovanoska, D.; Vanevski, D.; Vittadini, E.; Pellegrini, N.; Szűcs, V.; Harangozó, J.; EL-Kenawy, A.; EL-Shenawy, O.; Yalçın, E.; Kösemeci, C.; Klava, D.; Straumite, E.Objectives: Because there is scientific evidence that an appropriate intake of dietary fibre should be part of a healthy diet, given its importance in promoting health, the present study aimed to develop and validate an instrument to evaluate the knowledge of the general population about dietary fibres. Study design: The present study was a cross sectional study. Methods: The methodological study of psychometric validation was conducted with 6010 participants, residing in ten countries from 3 continents. The instrument is a questionnaire of self-response, aimed at collecting information on knowledge about food fibres. For exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was chosen the analysis of the main components using varimax orthogonal rotation and eigenvalues greater than 1. In confirmatory factor analysis by structural equation modelling (SEM) was considered the covariance matrix and adopted the Maximum Likelihood Estimation algorithm for parameter estimation. Results: Exploratory factor analysis retained two factors. The first was called Dietary Fibre and Promotion of Health (DFPH) and included 7 questions that explained 33.94 % of total variance ( = 0.852). The second was named Sources of Dietary Fibre (SDF) and included 4 questions that explained 22.46% of total variance ( = 0.786). The model was tested by SEM giving a final solution with four questions in each factor. This model showed a very good fit in practically all the indexes considered, except for the ratio 2/df. The values of average variance extracted (0.458 and 0.483) demonstrate the existence of convergent validity; the results also prove the existence of discriminant validity of the factors (r2 = 0.028) and finally good internal consistency was confirmed by the values of composite reliability (0.854 and 0.787). Conclusions: This study allowed validating the KADF scale, increasing the degree of confidence in the information obtained through this instrument in this and in future studies.
- Knowledge about sources of dietary fibres and health effects using a validated scale: a cross-country studyPublication . Guiné, Raquel; Duarte, J.; Ferreira, M.; Correia, P.; Leal, M.; Rumbak, I.; Barić, I.C.; Komes, D.; Satalić, Z.; Sarić, M.M.; Tarcea, M.; Fazakas, Z.; Jovanoska, D.; Vanevski, D.; Vittadini, E.; Pellegrini, N.; Szűcs, V.; Harangozó, J.; EL-Kenawy, A.; EL-Shenawy, O.; Yalçın, E.; Kösemeci, C.; Klava, D.; Straumite, E.Objectives Dietary fibre (DF) is one of the components of diet that strongly contributes to health improvements, particularly on the gastrointestinal system. Hence, this work intended to evaluate the relations between some sociodemographic variables such as age, gender, level of education, living environment or country on the levels of knowledge about dietary fibre (KADF), its sources and its effects on human health, using a validated scale. Study design The present study was a cross-sectional study. Methods A methodological study was conducted with 6010 participants, residing in 10 countries from different continents (Europe, America, Africa). The instrument was a questionnaire of self-response, aimed at collecting information on knowledge about food fibres. The instrument was used to validate a scale (KADF) which model was used in the present work to identify the best predictors of knowledge. The statistical tools used were as follows: basic descriptive statistics, decision trees, inferential analysis (t-test for independent samples with Levene test and one-way ANOVA with multiple comparisons post hoc tests). Results The results showed that the best predictor for the three types of knowledge evaluated (about DF, about its sources and about its effects on human health) was always the country, meaning that the social, cultural and/or political conditions greatly determine the level of knowledge. On the other hand, the tests also showed that statistically significant differences were encountered regarding the three types of knowledge for all sociodemographic variables evaluated: age, gender, level of education, living environment and country. Conclusions The results showed that to improve the level of knowledge the actions planned should not be delineated in general as to reach all sectors of the populations, and that in addressing different people, different methodologies must be designed so as to provide an effective health education.
- Nurses knowledge of health effects of dietary fibrePublication . Sarić, M.M.; Ljubičić, M.; Ćurin, K.; Vidaković, D.S.; Guiné, RaquelIntroduction: Nurses accompany patients throughout their health care to prevent and treat disease, so their knowledge about diet and dietary fibre is key to successful diet therapy, which is an essential part of a patient's non-pharmacological treatment. It is known from the literature that a high proportion of nurses have limited knowledge about diet therapy and about sources of soluble fibre and other foods that can prevent or treat certain diseases. Given the position of nurses as key providers of dietary guidance, and given the health benefits of dietary fibre, we wanted to assess the level of fibre-related knowledge among nurses in Croatia. Material and Methods: Cross-sectional study based on data collected between October 2014 and March 2015 using a survey developed by the CI&DETS Polytechnic Institute in Viseu, Portugal. The survey contains questions about demographic characteristics as well as about knowledge of sources of dietary fibre, recommended daily intake and effects of fibre intake on particular diseases. The study included a total of 369 nurses from two health institutions and one nursing school from Croatia older than 18 years. Differences in knowledge were assessed for significance using the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test. Possible associations among variables were explored using Spearman's rank correlation. For all statistical analyses, the threshold of significance was defined as P<0.05. Results: The level of knowledge among nurses in Croatia about dietary fibre varied from «undecided» to «partial knowledge». The median for level of knowledge ranged from 3 to 4 with low variability ranging from 0.11 to 0.33. Average levels of knowledge in percentages varied from 57.6% to 82.1%. Nurses with higher education levels showed significantly higher knowledge levels about the influence of dietary fiber intake on the risk of certain diseases (p = 0.007), constipation (p = 0.016), bowel cancer (p = 0.005) and breast cancer (p = 0.039). Conclusion: The level of nurses’ knowledge about dietary fiber is suboptimal. This indicates the need to strengthen nurse education in the areas of diet and diet therapy. Increase the level of knowledge of nurses about nutrition can positively influence the quality of care.