THE IMPORTANCE OF MONITORING HEALTH STATUS OF THE POPULATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE REGION - SELECTED DETERMINANTS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' HEALTH

Health and state of health of population are intricately conditioned by both positive and negative effects of various factors of social, economic, working environment and environment. State of health of population is essential for the reproductive process and the development of employment potential and thus for overall economic growth of the country. Population health research, with its significance and consequences related to a many regional sciences - economic (e.g. the cost reduction in the prevalence of some diseases), sociological (e.g. the impact of social status on health, community health), social (e.g. the perception and the relationship of society to health), geographic (e.g. spatial aspects of the standard of health of populations) or demographic (e.g. the influence of the age structure of gender on incidence of diseases) disciplines. This paper aims: 1) to specify the importance of monitoring health status of the population for regional development, 2) to identify the impact of demographic and regional factors for the eating habits of university students. The results show that 3/4 of students have normal body weight. Underweight applies particularly to women, on the contrary, overweight to men. Students with underweight are the biggest consumers of fruit, vegetable and dairy products; students with moderate obesity eat smoked meats most often. Students from the smallest villages (to the max 499 inhabitants) lead in the frequency of consumption of fried food and sugary drinks. Students from municipalities with 10-20 thousand inhabitants prefer whole grain breads and poultry. Improper eating habits lead to growth of prevalence of non-communicable diseases; beside other things it brings increasing health care costs, which may become unsustainable for the society and may weaken the competitiveness of regions.