Association between perception of practical advice, educational messages of the Dietary Guidelines and the media in Peruvian university students

Objective: To determine the association between the perception of practical advice and the educational messages of the food guides in students of a private university in Peru. Methodology: Cross-sectional study. The population corresponded to undergrads who are from the first to tenth semester of their degrees in a private university of Lima-Peru. The sample was 480 university students who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. The data were collected in the period from october to november of the year 2019. A questionnaire was applied to collect the perception of university students about the messages of the dietary guidelines and the media where they would like to know information about educational messages. Results: 46.5% correspond to undergrads of the Faculty of Health Sciences. Messages 1, 3, 4, 6, 9 and 11 of the Peruvian GABAS showed an evident statistical association (p <0.05). The media with the highest proportion by which they would like to know educational messages about healthy eating were Television (28.5%), Instagram (27.7%) and Facebook (19.0%). Conclusion: Differentiated advertising should be designed and implemented on television, Instagram and Facebook on healthy eating to contribute to the improvement of the health and nutrition status of Peruvian university students. Arch Latinoam Nutr 2021; 71(1): 36-44.