Dietary Habits and Prevalence of Underweight/ Obesity in Students of University of Gujrat, Pakistan

Authors

  • Muhammad Irfan
  • Muhammad Jabbar
  • Shahzeb Hameed

Keywords:

Overweight, underweight, Obesity, BMI, Nutritional habits.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence of underweight and overweight/obesity among University
students and examine the dietary habits and nutritional plan with relation to Body mass index (BMI).
METHODOLOGY: University students (N = 432, mean age 21.8±2.9 years) 342 females and 90 males were
selected by simple random sampling technique. BMI was calculated through anthropometry.
Consumption of selected foods and eating behaviors were noted via pre-tested questionnaire.
RESULTS: Results showed that percentage of underweight students was much higher (27.1 %) while
overweight and obesity ratio were moderately high (10.2% and 3.7%). From students without having
breakfast in last 7 days, 35.9 % were underweight while students having regular breakfast had highest
percentage in normal BMI (76.3 %) (p-value < 0.001). Consuming fruits 4-6 times /week was found
highest with normal weight 59.6% while 23.9% (p-value<0.001) were underweight without fruit intake.
From total of 187 participants having 4-6 times vegetable consumption, 42.9% were with normal BMI
(p-value < 0.005). Students using fast food ? 3 times/day were overweight and obese mainly. Statistically
less significant results found regarding vitamin and probiotic supplementations with their relation to
BMI. From total 148 students who did daily exercise, 140 were with normal BMI. 26% of total participants
never did exercise and 63.8% among them were underweight.
CONCLUSION: High numbers of students regarding underweight and overweight categories are
distressing in this study. To point out determinants of underweight/obesity and poor eating practices
among university students, qualitative research is necessary for future.

Downloads

Published

17-07-2019

How to Cite

1.
Irfan M, Jabbar M, Hameed S. Dietary Habits and Prevalence of Underweight/ Obesity in Students of University of Gujrat, Pakistan. J Liaq Uni Med Health Sci [Internet]. 2019 Jul. 17 [cited 2024 Dec. 22];18(02):175-80. Available from: http://121.52.154.205/index.php/jlumhs/article/view/154

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 02 (2019): Journal of Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences

Section

Original Articles

License

Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors have read and agreed to the content of the undertaking form or the Terms and Conditions.

When an article is accepted for publication, the author(s) retain the copyright and are required to grant the publisher the right of first publication and other non-exclusive publishing rights to JLUMHS.

Articles published in the Journal of Liaquat University of Medical & health sciences are open access articles under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial - Share Alike 4.0 License. This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium; provided the original work is properly cited and initial publication in this journal. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access. In addition to that users are allowed to remix, tweak and build upon the work non-commercially as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. Or, in certain cases it can be stated that all articles and content there in are published under creative commons license unless stated otherwise.