TY - JOUR
T1 - Memory Abilities Are Selectively Related to Food Label and Numeracy Nutrition Skills
AU - Sarma, Rhea
AU - Willis, Nathaniel
AU - Holthaus, Tori A.
AU - Cannavale, Corinne N.
AU - Gibbs, Heather D.
AU - Khan, Naiman
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - Objective: We investigated the relationship between nutrition literacy, diet quality, carotenoid status, and cognition. Methods: Adults aged 37.5 ± 17.0 years (n = 52) completed the 42-item Nutrition Literacy Assessment Instrument (NLit). The Dietary History Questionnaire III was analyzed to determine the Healthy Eating Index. Skin carotenoids were assessed as a diet quality biomarker. Selective attention, relational memory, and pattern separation abilities were assessed using the flanker, spatial reconstruction, and mnemonic similarity tasks, respectively. Statistical adjustments included age, sex, education, and body mass index. Results: No correlations were observed for NLit scores and NLit subscales with Healthy Eating Index and skin carotenoid status. However, the NLit's food label and numeracy subscale was related to greater pattern separation abilities (ρ = 0.33, r2 = 0.11, P = 0.03). Conclusions and Implications: Comprehension of food labels and numeracy information was associated with memory abilities. Future work is needed to test whether targeting working memory and attentional processes during memory retrieval in larger samples may facilitate the acquisition of nutrition knowledge.
AB - Objective: We investigated the relationship between nutrition literacy, diet quality, carotenoid status, and cognition. Methods: Adults aged 37.5 ± 17.0 years (n = 52) completed the 42-item Nutrition Literacy Assessment Instrument (NLit). The Dietary History Questionnaire III was analyzed to determine the Healthy Eating Index. Skin carotenoids were assessed as a diet quality biomarker. Selective attention, relational memory, and pattern separation abilities were assessed using the flanker, spatial reconstruction, and mnemonic similarity tasks, respectively. Statistical adjustments included age, sex, education, and body mass index. Results: No correlations were observed for NLit scores and NLit subscales with Healthy Eating Index and skin carotenoid status. However, the NLit's food label and numeracy subscale was related to greater pattern separation abilities (ρ = 0.33, r2 = 0.11, P = 0.03). Conclusions and Implications: Comprehension of food labels and numeracy information was associated with memory abilities. Future work is needed to test whether targeting working memory and attentional processes during memory retrieval in larger samples may facilitate the acquisition of nutrition knowledge.
KW - cognition
KW - dietary guidelines
KW - food label
KW - nutrition literacy
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jneb.2023.10.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jneb.2023.10.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 37921796
AN - SCOPUS:85175552380
SN - 1499-4046
VL - 55
SP - 861
EP - 868
JO - Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
JF - Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
IS - 12
ER -