Exploring nutrition knowledge levels of Australian university students: Findings from the AUS-R NKQ validation study

University is a time when students establish independence and are primarily responsible for their own food intake (1,2). However, unhealthy dietary behaviours such as an increase in nutrient-poor, energy-dense foods are often adopted during this time (3-5). Nutrition knowledge (NK) has been proposed to improve dietary behaviours of students, with higher levels of NK associated with more frequent purchasing of healthy foods, increased consumption of fruits and vegetables and more nutritious food choices (6-7). Understanding university students nutrition knowledge is critical in determining areas that nutrition programmes should focus on to improve their dietary behaviours (1,8-9). Therefore, the purpose of this research is to explore NK levels of Australian university students using the AUS-R NKQ (8).