Nutritional Habits for Students of Mosul University

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the dietary habits and their correlation to body mass index ( BMI) for students of mosul university. A randomized 223college students female (F) and 168 male (M) were chosen, the participated subjects were asked to fill up a self-reported questionnaire containing 15 questions to cover nutritional habits, health behaviors, physical activity and smoking. Mean age of Fs was 21.50 ± 1.73 yr., body weight 59.43±10.54 kg. and height 158.52±4.96 cm. for Ms mean age was 21.90 ±1.86 yr., body weight 74.25±10.56 gm. and height 173.22 ±5.32cm. Mean BMI of Fs was 23.64±4.01kg/m² and 24.75±3.39kg/m² for Ms . Subjects were categorized accoding to BMI as follows: Under weight (5.83% and 1.79 % ), normal (65.47% and 51.19% ), over weight (21.07%and 39.29% ) and obese (7.62% and 7.74% ) for Fs and Ms respectively. Results revealed that only a quarter of college students of both genders consume their meals regularly, and only 38.69% of Ms and 25.11% of Fs consume breakfast regularly. About half Fs eat vegetables and 35.87% eat fruits daily. Males were more prone to consume meat (48.81%) than females (41.26%). Results revealed that Ms consume low density diets eg. Sweets and soft drinks, while Fs consume less. About quarter of both genders consume milk and dairy products regularly. Statistical analysis pointed a significant positive correlation ( P≤0.05) between consumption of fried foods and BMI for F and M subjects, while a negative significant correlation was found between physical activity and BMI, also, a higher negative significant correlation (P≤0.01 ) was found between smoking and BMI. It was concluded that college students do not consume balanced diet and they need strategies and efforts to avoid unhealthy nutritional habits.