LAUSR

Followers of plant-food based diets (PFBD) may be motivated by health-related, ethical, religious or economic reasons. It is also a commonly held belief that vegetarians and vegans demonstrate a pro-ecological mindset. However, ecological attitudes and practices of people following diets based on plant food have not been studied extensively. The aim of this study was the assessment of ecological attitudes and practices among persons following vegetarian or related diets. The users of Facebook groups or fora for people following PFBD were invited to the online survey. It was performed with integrated tool consisting of the 16-item European Health Literacy (HL) Survey questionnaire, a short, 18-item, ad hoc tool exploring ecological knowledge (EK), attitudes (EA) and practices (EP), and a set of items asking about sociodemographic status. Combined scores reflecting ecological variables and HL were used for further analysis. The study group consisted of 127 respondents, of whom 83.5% (n = 106) were women. Mean age (standard deviation) was 26.3 (7.2) years. Of the respondents, 19.7% (n = 25) followed vegan (V), 37.0% (n = 47) lacto- and/or ovovegetarian (LO), 10.2% (n = 13) macrobiotic and/or pescovegetarian (MI), and 18.9% (n = 24) pollo- and/or semivegetarian (PS) diet. Higher HL was associated with higher EA (mean score (standard deviation): 34.63 (4.66) vs 31.78 (5.53), U Mann-Whitney U test, p = 0.011) and AP (4.99 (0.70) vs 5.57 (0.67), p = 0.004), but not with EK (3.91 (1.14) vs 4.08 (1.01), p = 0.55). EA was also associated with the type of diet (ANOVA Kruskal-Wallis test, p = 0.031). Higher EA was seen in the V than in the PS diet group (35.24 (4.45) vs 31.00 (5.00), post-hoc test, p = 0.043). Among persons following PFBD, higher EA and EP are associated with higher HL. Development of HL may be associated not only with improved health outcomes but also with higher acceptance of pro-ecological approach. Pro-ecological attitudes and practices revealed by persons following plant food-based diets are associated with the level of health literacy. Environmental awareness depends on the type of followed diet.