Evaluation of body compositions, dietary habits and nutritional knowledge of health college students

Aim: Our aim was to evaluate nutritional habits, knowledge of nutritional attitudes, nutritional consumption, and body composition of medical career college students. Material and Method: The study included 172 female medical career college students. Anthropometric measurements, body composition, knowledge of nutrition, nutritional habits, frequency of food consumption and daily food consumption were evaluated. Results: According to body mass index (BMI) percentiles, 13.9% were overweight-obese; 20.7% had waist circumference above the 90th percentile; 13.9% had systolic blood pressure (BP) above the 95th percentile, 5.8% had diastolic BP above the 95th percentile and 19.8% had systolic or diastolic BP above the 95th percentile. It was observed that 63.9% of the students had meals 3 times a day and 41.1% did not have breakfast at all. Energy consumption was inadequate in 28.9% and excessive in 5.3%. Carbohydrate consumption was inadequate in 5.3% and excessive in 6.6%. Protein consumption was inadequate in 35.5% and excessive in 18.4%. Approximately 1/3 of the students had improper attitudes about food consumption and they were unaware of food ingredients. Conclusions: Achievement of proper feeding behavior begins from childhood. Even though they were receiving education in a health-related field, they possessed poor knowledge regarding eating habits and their attitude towards healthy diet was not promising. Therefore, regular educational programs about nutrition should be provided in schools. (Turk Arch Ped 2012; 47: 181-8)