KNOWLEDGE ON NUTRITION RELATED TO MENTAL ILLNESS OF THE HEALTH CAREWORKERS WORKING PSYCHIATRY SERVICES

Objective: it is to determine nutrition knowledge related to mentalillness of the health careworkers in psychiatry services and the affecting factors.methods: planned cross-sectionally, the study was conducted on the health care workers thatwork in the same hospitals as researchers do. all of the health care workers (physicians, nurses,dieticians, health officers, psychologists and social workers) were included in the study. age, gender,occupation, economic and marital status, their nutritional habits and their knowledge on nutritionrelated to mental health and illness were questioned. fifty true or false questions were asked inorder to assess their nutritional knowledge and each question was one point. the total score thandivided into tertiles and highest group was defined as 'sufficient' where the latter two were definedas 'insufficient'. data was collected via questionnaire at the clinics. spss version!5.0 used foranalysis and p<0.05 was considered as significant.results: among participants (n=73), 54.8% were nurses, and 35.6% were physicians. amongparticipants 32.9% had green leafy vegetables, 54.8% fruits daily, whereas 48.0% stated that theyeat fish at least once a week. most of the workers (87.7%) drink tea, coke or coffee daily. mean ofnutritional knowledge related to mental health and illness was 23.2±7.l (median:24) points.among participants, 26 of them (35.6%) found to have sufficient knowledge. 'nutrition can affectmental health' was the best known question (95.9%). among participants, i social workerspsychologist(16.7%), 8 physician (30.8%), 16 nurse- health officer (40.0%) and i dietician (100.0%)had sufficient knowledge.conclusion: even though health care workers working in psychiatry services are aware of thatthere is a relationship between nutrition and mental health, their knowledge on nutrition related tomental health was found insufficient. in service nutrition education on protection and treatment ofmental health and illnesses should be given to the health care workers in these services.