• İzzet Ülker, Muhammet Ali Aydin, Metin Yildiz, Gönül Gökçay, Ayşe Elkoca, Mehmet Salih Yildirim, Abraham Tanimowo, and Dursun Alper Yilmaz.
• Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Division of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Erzurum Technical University, Erzurum, Turkiye.
• Turk J Med Sci. 2024 Jan 1; 54 (5): 938948938-948.

Background/AimMicrobiota awareness, nutritional literacy, and health literacy levels in adolescents have a significant impact on their health and well-being. This research was conducted to examine the relationship between microbiota awareness, nutrition literacy, and health literacy in adolescents.Material And MethodsThis research was structured with a descriptive-correlational design. The study population comprised adolescents aged 10-19 years, living in Türkiye (n = 739), between June 2022 and February 2024. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0, G*Power 3.1, and R programming language 4.1.3.ResultsThe total effect of the health literacy variable on nutritional literacy was 0.2311, and this was statistically significant at a 95% confidence interval (CI) (p < 0.05). In terms of the health literacy variable, the direct effect of the nutrition literacy variable on the microbiota awareness variable was 0.2888, and this was statistically significant at the 95% CI (p < 0.05). In terms of the nutritional literacy variable, the direct effect of the health literacy variable on the microbiota awareness variable was 0.1707, and this was statistically significant at the 95% CI (p < 0.05). Nutrition literacy had a partial mediating role in the effect of health literacy on microbiota awareness (lower limit CI: 0.045; upper limit CI: 0.0894). The most accurate prediction of machine learning approaches to predict microbiota awareness was made with random forest with shapley additive explanations values, and the most important variable that should be in the model to predict the microbiota awareness variable was the nutrition literacy variable.ConclusionMicrobiota awareness increased as health literacy and nutrition literacy increased. In the machine learning approach prediction, the most important variables affecting microbiota awareness were health literacy and nutritional literacy. Longitudinal studies on microbiota awareness are recommended.© TÜBİTAK.

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