Full details are provided in tabular form in Additional file1: Table S2). Such weight gain may have long-term repercussions, since overweight during young adulthood has been identified as a significant predictor of obesity later in life [11]. Senior Lecturer (Biological Sciences) and Head of NutRI research group at Munster Technological University in Cork, Ireland. This study aimed to identify dietary patterns that exist within a UK university student population, to assess the nutritional profile of these patterns, and to examine socio-demographic and lifestyle variables underpinning these patterns. Mizui, Masayuki The aim of the study is to investigate the level of physical activity of university students. 2007;46:6783. Belfast: University of Ulster; 2006. Students reporting greater cooking ability tended towards the vegetarian and health-conscious patterns. Compliance with lifestyle (different from diet) recommendations by sex in the population under study: students of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), EHU12/24 study(Mean values and standard deviations, percentages), Table 4. Societies, clubs and culture. Obesity during pregnancy has short term and long term adverse consequences for both mother and child. Adele, Ed Sheeran 'too . A substantial proportion of students followed health-promoting diets, which had good nutrient profiles obviating a need for dietary intervention. Larson NI, Neumark-Sztainer D, Story M. Weight control behaviors and dietary intake among adolescents and young adults: longitudinal findings from project EAT. FFQs are not optimal for the measurement of absolute dietary intake, but the use of a dietary pattern approach permitted ranking according to food group intake and so was considered appropriate. Dietary patterns and survival of older Europeans: the EPIC-elderly study (European prospective investigation into Cancer and nutrition). The health-conscious pattern, which had a favourable nutrient profile - being particularly dense in micronutrients such as biotin, vitamin B12, vitamin D and selenium - is at odds with the stereotype of student eating patterns, but concurs with published research on dietary patterns among UK adults [21, 22] and a small-scale study of university students in Birmingham, UK [4]. Dr Andrew Kane, lead author says: "The fact that the population requiring surgery with anaesthesia is 2.3 years older than nine years ago has important implications. Almost one in five students spent over 40 on food each week. London: British Government; 2015. This population also represents a group of young adults with a set of unique factors driving dietary intake: the transition to university life may be associated with increased autonomy over food choice, small food budgets, and exposure to new social groups and food cultures. Ethical approval was obtained from 3 participating university. There was lack of fit in statistical models for convenience, red meat and alcohol, and vegetarian dietary patterns. Elika Guide, DIAL software for assessing diets and food calculations (for Windows, version 2.12), Department of Nutrition (UCM) & Alce Ingeniera, MedDietScore: a computer program that evaluates the adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern and its relation to cardiovascular disease risk, Adherence to Mediterranean diet in a Spanish university population, Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Well-being, Alcohol consumption and obesity: an update, Smoking, obesity, and their co-occurrence in the United States: cross sectional analysis, Relationship between smoking and obesity among women, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Body composition and physical activity in Italian university students, Relationship between attitudes toward healthy eating and dietary behaviour, lifestyle and demographic factors in a representative sample of Irish adults, 40-year trends in meal and snack eating behaviours of American adults, Dietary patterns, their covariates, and associations with severity of depressive symptons among university students in Lebanon: a cross-sectional study, Fiber patterns in young adults living in different environments (USA, Spain, Tunisia). Ishibashi, Chisaki Knowledge, attitude, and practice of obesity among university students Authors Baohong Xue 1 , Xu Zhang 1 , Tingting Li 1 , Yuanlong Gu 2 , Rui Wang 3 , Wangyang Chen 4 , Xiaohua Ren 4 , Xiaohong Liu 4 , Guanqing Chen 4 , Yi Lin 4 , Chenchen Pan 4 , Wenying Zhao 4 , Tinghui Li 4 , Lianping He 4 , Chunlei Han 5 Affiliations The majority of respondents were from the University of Sheffield (n=567; 39.2%), Ulster University in Northern Ireland (n=443; 30.6%) and KCL (n=305; 21.1%). Body mass index during childhood , adolescence and young adulthood in relation to adult overweight and adiposity: the Fels longitudinal study. Variables were categorised into two groups for entry into a GLM: 1) demographic variables: gender, age, leisure-time physical activity, BMI, smoking, ethnicity, year of study, term-time accommodation, university attended, and full-time/part-time status 2) cooking- and eating-related variables: cooking ability, animal food consumption, frequency of consumption of meals prepared using raw ingredients, frequency of consumption of meals using pre-prepared foods, frequency of consumption of ready-meals and take-aways, frequency of consumption of meals from university cafeteria, frequency of skipping breakfast, frequency of skipping lunch, and amount spent on food. Gong, Jiayu This component was labelled snacking, because it was mainly characterised by snack-type foods that generally did not represent components of main meals, require no preparation and offered many options for mobile consumption. Am J Clin Nutr. Ideally, the sampling frame would have included a greater number of universities and involved stratification by year of study, subject group and socioeconomic indices in order to give a nationally representative profile of student eating patterns. Detopoulou, Paraskevi Female students favoured the vegetarian pattern, whilst male students preferred the convenience, red meat & alcohol pattern. These results could be related to adoption of healthy behaviours for weight loss (e.g. Methods We searched CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO for original studies of undergraduate students where an obesity trait was associated with a risk factor. Yamauchi-Takihara, Keiko Methods: A cross-sectional . First, recall bias inherent in a convenience sample cannot be ruled out. 2017). Frequencies of consumption in the questionnaire were expressed as follows: every day=7/week, through to once per week=1/week; once every 23weeks (F)=0.5/week; rarely/never (R)=0. Finally, fourth, the design itself was cross-sectional so causal conclusions cannot be drawn from the behaviour factors selected. Northern Ireland: Public Health England; 2014. p. 6184. In addition, the set of protocolised measurements used in this study generated a large amount of data regarding behavioural determinants of overweight/obesity and interrelationships among them, in a community of university students. Eur J Clin Nutr. for this article. Just over one-third of students were studying a health-related degree. 2007;10:20311. By using this website, you agree to our Missing data on social class for students at the University of Sheffield precluded adjustment for this possibility. Wang, Lina There were strong positive correlations (0.5r<0.6; p<0.01) between the vegetarian pattern and energy-adjusted intakes of fibre, copper and thiamin. There are also indications of high intakes of confectionery and fast foods, and low consumption of fruit and vegetables [3, 4]. The authors declare that they have no competing interest. Attendance at Ulster University (p<0.001) was independently associated with lower scores. This study also revealed that older students favoured more healthful dietary patterns and there was evidence of a positive linear relationship between age and scores on the health-conscious pattern. Information on dieting/weight loss behaviour, supplement use, cooking ability (four response options from able to cook wide range of meals from raw ingredients through to unable to cook at all), smoking status (students were asked to self-identify as a never smoker, ex-smoker, social smoker or regular smoker), self-reported physical activity levels (students were required to self-identify as not very active, moderately active or very active), body weight (kg) and height (m) (for calculation of body mass index (BMI), kg/m2), cooking behaviours (consumption of: meals made from raw ingredients; pre-prepared foods; ready meals and take-aways; and meals from university cafeteria) and weekly food expenditure () was also collected. Among men, a moderate/low PA level, breakfast skipping, a non-adequate breakfast duration and number of EO and eating breakfast alone or depending on the occasion; and among women, a low MDS, a moderate/high alcohol consumption, a non-adequate sleep duration, eating breakfast and lunch alone or depending on the occasion were associated with excess BF. Privacy Nishida, Makoto Dietary patterns analysis unveiled heterogeneity in food choice with students following four major dietary patterns: vegetarian, snacking, health-conscious and convenience, red meat & alcohol. Second, self-reports of the behaviours may be subject to social desirability bias; thus, the findings may be under or overestimated. The survey was conducted between Autumn 2013 and Spring 2015. Students in Northern Ireland appeared to favour less healthful dietary patterns than those in Great Britain. 2012;58:10918 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22407132. There were differences in recruitment method between the University of Sheffield and Ulster University (recruitment email distributed directly to all students via a global mailing list), and the other three participating sites (e.g. The Body Mass Index or BMI is a scale that assigns a number value that is . The CTD team of the Department of Clinical Pathology, who participated in 'Free Draw', a student-led non-subject program operated as part of the University Innovation Support Project, developed lactic acid bacteria products found in kimchi to solve various health problems caused by the increase in obesity worldwide. 2000;24:162835. In Model 2 (demographic variables & food/eating related variables), female gender (p<0.001), middle age group (p=0.020), greatest self-reported cooking ability (p=0.036), least frequent consumption of pre-prepared foods (p=0.047) and lower consumption of animal products (p=0.036) were independently associated with higher vegetarian pattern scores. Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students accounted for 25.1% of students living permanently in the UK. et al. It should be noted that we used previously well-proven or validated questionnaires. Many studies paid attention to the worldwide decline in physical activity (PA) and increase the sedentary and obesity. The health-conscious pattern was the most nutrient dense, with significant, positive, strong correlations (0.5r<0.7; p<0.01) for energy-adjusted intakes of selenium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, and biotin. Sakaguchi, Yusuke Addict. Associations with sociodemographic variables were assessed through general linear modelling. This work was supported by grants from the UPV/EHU (EHU12/24), the Vice Rector for Innovation, Social Outreach and Cultural Activities of the UPV/EHU, funding by the contract-programme formalised with the Basque Government (code of the Campus Bizia Lab project: 17ARRO, 18ARRO and 19ARRO), the Vice Rector for Students and Employability of the UPV/EHU and Basque Government (2016); and a pre-doctoral scholarship from the Basque Language Vice-chancellor of the UPV/EHU. Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme. Compliance with dietary recommendations according to body fat (BF) classification in the population under study: students of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), EHU12/24 study(Mean values and standard deviations, percentages), Table 5. Grech, Amanda British Government. The inactivity at different ages it is a major problem for most countries. California Privacy Statement, Data collection was preceded by a pilot study, which was used to refine the web-survey. This clustering of behaviours is important, since the negative health outcomes associated with multiple lifestyle risk factors are greater than the sum of individual health risk behaviours [27]. Dietary patterns and cardiovascular risk factors in adolescents and young adults: the Northern Ireland young hearts project. View all Google Scholar citations It is of note that a vegetarian diet was the predominant pattern identified in the current study, and indeed 10% of students described themselves as vegetarian. Almost 1 in 3 college American students have obesity presently (1). These recruitment differences may have biased the sample towards health-motivated students at KCL, St Andrews and Southampton. Manage cookies/Do not sell my data we use in the preference centre. ALSO READ: Yikes! Examination of scatter plots revealed no evidence of non-linear relationships between component scores and nutrient intakes. Br J Nutr. In terms of eating behaviours of the sample, just under two-thirds of students described themselves as regular meat-eaters, whilst approximately 10% of students identified themselves as vegetarian. Correspondence to These universities had responded positively to an invitation to participate in the research study; contact was made via university Human Nutrition or Health Sciences departments. and Lead a dynamic research team in the activity of national food consumption surveys in Ireland including the impact of dietary intake on population health. In contrast, other student-specific research has failed to detect an association between eating habits and age (or year of study), although most of these studies have not collected detailed dietary data [2, 4, 10, 26]. This means schools have a rich opportunity to improve youth health and tackle obesity at the ideal point in time-before problems take hold. The lack of association between university attended and consumption of the convenience, red meat & alcohol diet also deserves attention. Lac A, Donaldson CD. One important aspect relates to diet and there is emerging evidence that university students may consume poor quality diets, with potential implications for body weight and long-term health. Introduction. Tabachnick BG, Fidell LS. - UK-domiciled students by age This email provided study details and emphasised that students did not have to be eating a healthy diet to participate. Using multivariate statistical techniques to identify dietary patterns through intake of multiple interrelated food groups captures the complexity and multidimensional nature of diet, which is representative of real life food consumption [17]. Whilst it is likely that students who lack culinary skills may be forced to rely on convenience foods to ensure meal provision, other factors such as time pressures and (lack of) cooking enjoyment may be more salient in determining students decisions around consumption of these foods [33, 34] . Slattery ML. If they are overweight or obese, they will carry the wrong impression to the general population. Universities in particular may represent a setting in which dietary behaviours are open to change and large groups of young adults can be reached, representing an appropriate target for health promotion efforts. Aim: To assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity among healthcare science college students at private university in Saudi Arabia. Neither the UPV/EHU nor the Basque Government played a role in the design, analysis or writing of this article. The department, functioning under the Ministry of Science and Technology, had offered the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) scholarship to the student in January 2017. Pearsons product moment correlation coefficients were calculated between pattern scores and absolute nutrient intakes. In 2019-20, 10% of children were obese at the start of primary . The current study had a number of strengths and limitations that should be acknowledged. The health-conscious pattern had the most favourable micronutrient profile. The first component explained 8.4% variance; the three remaining components explained 5.7%, 4.2% and 3.4% of the variance in food intake respectively. Four principal components were retained, which explained 21.7% of the total variance in food intake. Weight and Discrimination: Legal Issues in Weight Discrimination. A cut-off of 30years was chosen in order to focus on the dietary behaviours of young adults. The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. There were also high factor loadings for fried food, pasta and rice, ready-made sauces, pizza, chips, alcoholic drinks, processed meat, red meat and offal, and eggs; there was a strong negative factor loading for low fat/low calorie yogurts. (Do the Spanish University students follow Mediterranean dietary patterns? A review of drinking motives. Objective: To investigate the knowledge and views of university students regarding obesity and weight management strategies. Pigott S, Bates B, Nass L. Socio-demographic characteristics of the NDNS RP sample - National Diet and Nutrition Survey. Greater meat and fast food consumption among male students has previously been reported, and vegetarianism is more prevalent amongst female students [3, 24]. Article Weight gain and obesity among university students is therefore a recognized health issue. 2022. The Bayes Business School is announcing the Iain Allan Bursary for international students dreaming to pursue their master's studies in the UK. Students identifying as international students on the first page of the online survey could not proceed. Article 2015;2015:639239 Available from: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/apm/2015/639239/. Indeed it is noteworthy that these two patterns were additionally positively correlated with energy intake and did not feature fruit and vegetables; dependence on such a pattern may increase risk of positive energy balance and hence weight gain. 2011;19:197204. Lake AA, Adamson AJ, Craigie AM, Rugg-Gunn AJ, Mathers JC. Chen, Xiaomei Several studies suggest that prevention of obesity in the young population is crucial. College-based obesity prevention educational interventions are multi-component efforts that provide education about nutrition, physical activity, and healthy weight management; such interventions are often paired with campus environment improvements. Results Two-hundred sixty-eight articles were included comprising . Otsuki, Naoko To avoid this, the majority of assessments were conducted over 2 d to ensure adequate concentration while answering the questions and to promote the participation. Available from: http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/clustering-unhealthy-behaviours-over-time. You can't lose weight even when you increase your physical activity and stick to a low-calorie diet for many months. 1990;64:31929 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2223737. Indeed, the BMI distributions were also biased towards healthy, in keeping with other student surveys [4, 26]. Prev Med (Baltim). 2010. Bamia C, Trichopoulos D, Ferrari P, Overvad K, Bjerregaard L, Tjnneland A, et al. Obesity and overweight are associated with age and level of studies. Among reception-aged children, those aged four and five, the rates of obesity rose from 9.9% in 2019-20 to 14.4% in 2020-21. Yoshimura, Ryuichi These conditions include: metabolic syndrome type 2 diabetes high. Background Many studies have examined childhood and adolescent obesity, but few have examined young adults and the effect of their home and current living environments on prevalence rates. Compared with normal-weight students, overweight students had greater waist and hip circumferences and higher blood pressure, fasting and 2-h insulin, fasting total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, VLDL cholesterol, triacylglycerol, and leptin levels. 1999. All authors contributed to revisions and approval of the final manuscript. The impact of a community-based food skills intervention on cooking confidence, food preparation methods and dietary choices - an exploratory trial. This scholarship at Bayes is being offered in recognition and honour of Iain Allan, now an independent consultant and an actuary who . Larson NI, Perry CL, Story M, Neumark-Sztainer D. Food preparation by young adults is associated with better diet quality. 2023 BioMed Central Ltd unless otherwise stated. Obesity and overweight in children have steadily increased in recent decades in developed and developing countries. Genes also may contribute to a person's susceptibility to weight gain. Mccourt HJ, Draffin CR, Woodside JV, Cardwell CR, Young IS, Hunter SJ, et al. ; Seventy-three percent of college students admit to an unhealthy diet and rarely exercise, with a lack of motivation, time, and convenience being the common denominators. Four patterns emerged, with evidence of more healthful dietary practices amongst female and older students, and those with greater self-reported cooking ability. Globally, obesity is affecting an increasing proportion of children. Risk factors of overweight/obesity-related lifestyles Department of Pharmacy and Food Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, 01006Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114521001483, Reference Vadeboncoeur, Townsend and Charlie Foster, Reference Cutillas, Herrero and de San Eustaqui, Reference Balgoon, Al-Zahrani and Alkhattabi, Reference Coli Bari, Satali and Lukesi, Reference El Ansari, Stock and Mikolajczyk, Reference Hultgren, Turrisi and Cleveland, Reference El Ansari, Ssewanyana and Stock, Reference Lieberman, Marriott and Williams, Reference Bennasar-Veny, Yaez and Jordi Pericas, Reference Moreno-Gmez, Romaguera-Bosch and Tauler-Riera, Reference Telleria-Aramburu, Rocandio and Rebato, Reference Marfell-Jones, Olds and Stewart, Reference Bray, Bouchard, James, Bray, Bouchard and James, Reference Telleria-Aramburu, Alegria-Lertxundi and Arroyo-Izaga, Reference Romaguera, Gracia-Lavedan and Molinuevo, Reference Sotos-Prieto, Bhupathiraju and Falcon, Reference Carbajal, Snchez-Muniz, Garca-Arias and Garca- Fernndez, Reference Ortega, Lpez-Sobaler and Andrs, Reference Panagiotakos, Milias and Pitsavos, Reference Garca-Meseguer, Cervera and Vico, Reference Panagiotakos, Pitsavos and Stefanadis, Reference Healton, Vallone and McCausland, Reference Zaccagni, Barbieri and Gualdi-Russo, Reference Jaalouk, Matar Boumosleh and Helou, Reference Garca-Meseguer, Delicado-Soria and Serrano-Urrea, Reference Whatnall, Patterson and Brookman, Reference Vereecken, Covents and Sichert-Hellert, Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network, Lifestyle risk factors of students: a cluster analytical approach, Prevalence of overweight/obesity and its associated factors among university students from 22 countries, A meta-analysis of weight gain in first year university students: is freshman 15 a myth, Addressing nutritional issues in the college-aged client: strategies for the nurse practitioner, Prevalence of overweight and obesity, and dieting attitudes among Caucasian and African American college students in Eastern North Carolina: a cross-sectional survey, Prevalence of overweight/obesity and central obesity and its associated factors among a sample of university students in India, Prevalence of overweight and central obesity and their relationship with blood pressure among college students in Shandong, China, Estudio de hbitos alimentarios y estilos de vida de los universitarios espaoles (Study of Food Habits and Lifestyles of Spanish University Students). Physical activity plays an important role in the prevention of becoming overweight and obese in childhood and adolescence, and reducing the risk of obesity in adulthood. Schutz HK, Paxton SJ. Siguen patrones de dieta mediterrnea los universitarios espaoles? Has data issue: true Support and wellbeing. Wrieden WL, Anderson AS, Longbottom PJ, Valentine K, Stead M, Caraher M, et al. Yamamoto, Ryohei University of Glasgow researchers looked at health surveys of nearly 200,000 adults. . Feature Flags: { Aggregation of lifestyle behaviours has previously been reported in both university student and adult populations [26,27,28]. Lack of sleep -another hallmark of the Western lifestyle-is also emerging as a risk factor for . The findings of the study should be considered within the context of its limitations. Yan, Wenjing On average, students reported a significant weight increase (1.53 kg+/-2.70, p<0.001), although there was considerable variation, with 55% of the sample reporting weight gain, 12% weight loss,. This homogeneity suggests that this pattern is pervasive across all universities studied, substantiating popular beliefs that the diet of UK university students is one of poor quality. Raich-Escursell RM, Segues CV, Torras-Claras J, Huon G (2004) Bulimia symptoms and risk factors in university students. Uni-versity students. Weight changes in young adults: a mixed-methods study. This study utilized longitudinal data from the NYC Fitnessgram . University policy to improve students diets should incorporate efforts to promote student engagement in cooking and food preparation, and increased availability of low cost healthier food items. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. volume17, Articlenumber:90 (2018) The selected 70 students were associated with obesity risk factors about obesity (owerveight or normal weight and they were in the risk group in terms of obesity according to the risk rating scales, and between 19-24 years old) and randomly assigned to the experimental (35 students) and control group (35 students). Body Image. Health promoting behaviours and lifestyle characteristics of students at seven universities in the UK. The World Obesity Federation released the first Atlas of Childhood Obesity in 2019, presenting the country-specific prevalence of obesity by age groups and sex, and calculated risk scores for future obesity. Kings Fund. A 2017 Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior report found that during four years of college, the percentage of students overweight or obese rose from 23% to 41% a 78% increase.