An Investigation of health numeracy competence and confidence among nutrition students at an Indonesian university

Numeracy is a fundamental requirement for success in tertiary education, enabling students to achieve course learning outcomes and minimize attrition. In nutrition and dietetics, students must possess the confidence and capability to apply mathematical reasoning to complex professional tasks, such as managing nutrient calculations and interpreting clinical data. This study investigated health numeracy competence and confidence among 107 undergraduate nutrition students at an Indonesian university using a cross-sectional design. Health numeracy was measured via the General Health Numeracy Test (GHNT-6) combined with a 0–10 scale confidence assessment. The findings revealed a critical deficiency in applied numeracy; specifically, only 5.6% of students correctly calculated carbohydrate content from a nutrition label. Furthermore, a Wilcoxon signed-rank test confirmed a significant "overconfidence gap" (p