Dietary Regimen, Overweight, and Obesity in Human Nutrition Students and Other Majors: A Cross-Sectional Study

• Published in: Journal of nutrition and metabolism Vol. 2022; pp. 9957690 - 9
• Main Authors: Solís-Guevara, Fernando D., Ruiz Mamani, Percy G., Saintila, Jacksaint
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Hindawi 23.03.2022; Hindawi Limited; Wiley
• Subjects: Age; Alcoholic beverages; Body mass index; Body weight; Careers; College students; Cross-sectional studies; Dairy products; Diet; Dietary supplements; Eating behavior; Food; Food consumption; Fruits; Legumes; Meat; Nutrition research; Obesity; Obesity in adolescence; Oils & fats; Olive oil; Overweight; Private schools; Sandwich cookies; Social networks; Sociodemographics; Tubers; Type 2 diabetes; University students; Veganism; Vegetables; Vegetarianism; Peru
• ISSN: 2090-0724; 2090-0732
• DOI: 10.1155/2022/9957690

Background. Choosing a healthy diet is an increasingly a challenge for university students. The objective of this study was to compare diet and overweight/obesity in human nutrition students (HNS) and students of other careers (SOC) from a university located in Lima, Peru. Methods. It was a cross-sectional study consisting of 158 students out of an initial sample of 170. Information was collected on the sociodemographic and anthropometric characteristics of the participants and a validated questionnaire was applied to evaluate the frequency of food consumption. Results. There was no significant difference in diet between HNS and SOC (p > 0.05). HNS most frequently consumed yellow/orange vegetables (p = 0.020), purple vegetables (p = 0.049), citrus fruits (p = 0.029), eggs (p = 0.002), whole milk (p = 0.013), yogurt (p = 0.017), tofu (p = 0.003), olive oil (p = 0.003), other vegetable oils (p < 0.001), and alcoholic beverages (p = 0.037) than SOC. In contrast, HNS had a lower frequency of nonfried tuber intake (p = 0.039), fried tubers (p < 0.001), milk desserts (p = 0.048), flour fritters (p = 0.027), cookies with chocolate (p = 0.050), croissants (p = 0.030), cookies with filling (p = 0.024), candies (p = 0.006), and soda (p = 0.016) than SOC. Overweight/obesity was not different between HNS and SOC (p > 0.05). Conclusions. This study found significant differences in the consumption of some foods between HNS and SOC. However, it found no significant difference in diet and overweight/obesity between HNS and SOC.