University students’ Mediterranean diet adherence in North East of Italy: a pilot study, 2018.

Background: Mediterranean Diet (MD) is associated with decreased risk of many non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and weight main- tenance. No study has been conducted to better understand MD adherence among University students, especially future teachers and future experts in nutrition, in North East of Italy. Our pilot study represents a first exploration in this field among this population. Methods: This is a single-center, observational pilot survey. We enrolled >18 years Educational Sciences (ES) and Food Science (FS) University students attending Hygiene and Epidemiology lessons in March 2018. We performed the survey with a Mediterranean diet validated questionnaire and calculated the MD score. Based on previous studies on MD score, students were classified into High-MD adherence (score 6-14) and low- MD adherence group (score