Evaluation of Health Sciences Faculty Students' Knowledge Levels on Microbiota and Health

Abstract The importance of microbiota on health is an important topic that has been partially clarified and is still being illuminated. Individuals with health-related expertise are expected to be more familiar with the concepts of the microbiome and microbiota. However, some students who have not graduated and are studying in health-related fields do not understand concepts such as microbiota, microbiome, probiotics, and prebiotics, or they understand them incorrectly or insufficiently. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge levels of 4th grade students studying in the Nutrition and Dietetics, Midwifery, and Nursing departments about microbiota and health. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on 133 students. The Microbiota Awareness Scale and Information Form were conducted online via a questionnaire survey created in Google Forms. It was determined that microbiota awareness, general information, product knowledge, chronic disease, and probiotic and prebiotic knowledge sub-dimension scores of the students whose departments were nutrition and dietetics were higher than the nursing and midwifery students. Furthermore, 78.9% of the students did not attend a "Microbiota and Health" conference, congress, seminar, or training. As a result, it is suggested that education programs focusing on the relationship between microbiota and health be organized, or that they be added to the curriculum, and that students be educated about microbiota and health.