(P24-039-23) How Far Is To Access Healthy Food? Evaluation of Food Environment of University Campus in Ankara, Turkey

Objectives: Access to healthy and safe food is a fundamental human right. It is well known that limited access to healthy food may contribute to the risk of obesity. Overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence is associated with increased risks for chronic diseases in adult life. For this reason availability of healthy foods in nearby universities is an important issue. This study aimed to evaluate the nutrition environment of a university campus.

Methods: Different foodservice outlet menus (n=17) around the university in Ankara, Turkey (0-350 m; 350-700 m and 700-1000 m) were included. The restaurant locations around tha campus was marked on the Google map first. Than the researcher collected the restaurants' menus between January 2022 and March 2022. The Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in Restaurants (NEMS-R) was used to evaluate the nutrition environment of the university campus.

Results: In this study, 17.6% of the foodservice outlets are 0-350 m, 58.8% are 350-700 m, and 23.5% are 700-1000 m away from the university campus. Of the foodservice outlets, 52.9% are restaurants, 23.5% are fast food restaurants, 17.6% are cafe-patisseries, and 5.9% are home-cooking outlets. According to NEMS-R, the highest score for the availability of healthy choices was found for restaurants compared to other outlets (p >0.05). The mean score for facilitators to healthy eating of cafe-patisseries was higher than the other outlets (p=0.039). According to barriers to healthy eating, the mean score of fast food outlets was higher than the other outlets, and the difference was found, statistically significant (p=0.030). Access to fresh fruit and whole-grain bread was not available in any outlets. Non-fried vegetables were served in only two restaurants.

Conclusions: Results of this study showed that university students could not easily access healthy foods. The barriers to healthy food were higher compared to other studies. To improve to access healthy foods may be an essential step for improving healthy food environments.

Funding Sources: None