Data on nutritional awareness among Saudi adults: Al-Ahsa study

Nutritional awareness is essential for preventing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) linked to poor diet and sedentary lifestyles. In Saudi Arabia, gender-specific patterns of nutrition knowledge remain inconsistent, necessitating localized evidence to guide health promotion strategies. Therefore, it is of interest to assess and compare awareness of healthy nutritional practices among 538 Saudi adults aged 18-65 years in Al-Ahsa using a validated questionnaire. Overall nutritional awareness was moderate (males: 2.12 ± 0.16; females: 2.13 ± 0.17), while nutrition and physical-activity awareness were high in both genders. Mann-Whitney U tests showed no statistically significant gender differences in awareness scores (p > 0.05). Despite adequate awareness, unhealthy behaviors such as meal skipping (77.9%) and sedentary lifestyle (34.8%) were common. Thus, we show a gap between awareness and practice and support the need for targeted community nutrition interventions.