Nutrition and Weight Management Knowledge, Dietary Intake and Body Weight Status in Iranian Postgraduate Students in Universiti Putra Malaysia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2014.351.358Keywords:
Dietary intake, life style, Malaysia, nutritional knowledge, obesityAbstract
Good nutrition, a balanced diet and dietary intake are foundations of good health. Research has found that dietary patterns change dramatically following the arrival of students in a foreign country. However, nutritional status of Iranian students studying overseas have never been investigated. The objective of this study was to assess the associations between socio-demographic factors, nutritional knowledge, weight management knowledge, lifestyle factors, dietary intake and anthropometric factors with body weight status (BMI) among Iranian postgraduate students in UPM. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the body weight status of 210 Iranian postgraduate students aged between 22 and 55 years in University of Putra Malaysia. The associations between body weight status and socio demographics factors nutritional knowledge, weight management knowledge were assessed. Anthropometric factors (height, weight, BMI, waist and hip circumferences and body fat composition) were measured. Chi-square, Spearman Rho and Pearson tests were used for data analysis. From a total of 210 postgraduate students 110 were females and 100 males. No significant correlation was observed between smoking and BMI (p = 0.4). However, statistically significant correlations were observed between gender (p = 0.007), using protein (p = 0.005), carbohydrate (p = 0.002), fat (p = 0.001), fiber (p = 0.003), vitamin C (p = 0.04), calcium (p = 0.005), waist circumference (p = 0.02), hip circumference (p = 0.001), Waist to Hip Ratio (p = 0.002), body fat composition (p = 0.001) and BMI. In a nut shell, the primary findings in the present study showed that physical activity influences were the main factors that predicted the BMI among Iranian postgraduate in UPM. This reflects that increase in physical activity influences would result in decreased BMI among Iranian postgraduate students. In general, the findings of the present study have important public health implications. Hence, the present results prove that the nutritional behavior of university students is poor, although their evidently higher level of education.
References
World Health Organization, 2004. Obesity: Preventing and managing the global epidemic. Technical Report Series 894, WHO Consultation, USA., pp: 1-253.
Johansen, A., S. Rasmussen and M. Madsen, 2006. Health behaviour among adolescents in Denmark: Influence of school class and individual risk factors. Scand. J. Public Health, 34: 32-40.
Yahia, N., A. Achkar, A. Abdallah and S. Rizk, 2008. Eating habits and obesity among Lebanese university students. Nutr. J., Vol. 7.
James, P.T., R. Leach, E. Kalamara and M. Shayeghi, 2001. The worldwide obesity epidemic. Obesity Res., 9: 228S-233S.
Reeves, S.L. and C.J. Henry, 2000. Dietary change, energy balance and body weight regulation among migrating students. Int. J. Food Sci. Nutr., 51: 429-438.
Huang, T.T., K.J. Harris, R.E. Lee, N. Nazir, W. Born and H. Kaur, 2003. Assessing overweight, obesity, diet and physical activity in college students. J. Am. Coll. Health, 52: 83-86.
Hovhannisyan, M.G., 2007. Dietary changes of first year foreign students studying at Yerevan State medical university. Master Thesis, American University of Armenia, Yerevan.
O'Brien, G. and M. Davies, 2007. Nutrition knowledge and body mass index. Health Educ. Res., 22: 571-575.
Schuit, A.J., A.J.M. van Loon, M. Tijhuis and M.C. Ocke, 2002. Clustering of lifestyle risk factors in a general adult population. Prev. Med., 35: 219-224.
Turnbull, J.D., S. Heaslip and H.A. McLeod, 2000. Pre-school children's attitudes to fat and normal male and female stimulus figures. Int. J. Obes. Relat. Metab. Disord., 24: 1705-1706.
WHO Expert Consultation, 2004. Appropriate body-mass index for Asian populations and its implications for policy and intervention strategies. Lancet, 363: 157-163.
Edmonds, M.J., K.J. Ferreira, E.A. Nikiforuk, A.K. Finnie, S.H. Leavey, A.M. Duncan and J.A.R. Simpson, 2008. Body weight and percent body fat increase during the transition from high school to university in females. J. Am. Dietetic Assoc., 108: 1033-1037.
Koochek, A., S.E. Johansson, T.O. Kocturk, J. Sundquist and K. Sundquist, 2008. Physical activity and body mass index in elderly Iranians in Sweden: A population-based study. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr., 62: 1326-1332.
Gilbert, P.A. and S. Khokhar, 2008. Changing dietary habits of ethnic groups in Europe and implications for health. Nutr. Rev., 66: 203-215.
Papadaki, A. and J.A. Scott, 2002. The impact on eating habits of temporary translocation from a Mediterranean to a Northern European environment. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr., 56: 455-467.
Demory-Luce, D., M. Morales, T. Nicklas, T. Baranowski, I. Zakeri and G. Berenson, 2004. Changes in food group consumption patterns from childhood to young adulthood: The Bogalusa heart study. J. Am. Dietetic Assoc., 104: 1684-1691.
Quah, M.M., 2005. The relationship between the level of physical activity and indicates of obesity among Universiti Putra Malaysia students. Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia.
Nojomi, M. and S. Najamabadi, 2006. Obesity among university students, Tehran, Iran. Asia Pac. J. Clin. Nutr., 15: 516-520.
Thombs, D.L., C.A. Mahoney and M.L. Mclaughlin, 1998. Expectancies, self-esteem, knowledge and adolescent weight reduction behavior. J. Nutr. Educ., 30: 107-113.
Wardle, J. and F. Johnson, 2002. Weight and dieting: Examining levels of weight concern in British adults. Int. J. Obes. Relat. Metab. Disord., 26: 1144-1149.
Movahedi, A., 1999. Simple formula for calculating basal energy expenditure. Nutr. Res., 19: 989-995.
Levitsky, D. A., J. Garay, M. Nausbaum, L. Neighbors and D.M. DellaValle, 2006. Monitoring weight daily blocks the freshman weight gain: A model for combating the epidemic of obesity. Int. J. Obes., 30: 1003-1010.
Kaplan, M.S., N. Huguet, J.T. Newsom and B.H. McFarland, 2004. The association between length of residence and obesity among Hispanic immigrants. Am. J. Prev. Med., 27: 323-326.
Mammas, I.N., G.K. Bertsias, M. Linardakis, N.E. Tzanakis, D.N. Labadarios and A.G. Kafatos, 2003. Cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption and serum lipid profile among medical students in Greece. Eur. J. Public Health, 13: 278-282.
Brunt, A.R. and Y.S. Rhee, 2008. Obesity and lifestyle in U.S. college students related to living arrangemeents. Appetite, 51: 615-621.
Mirnalini, Jr. K., M.S. Zalilah, M.Y. Safiah, A. Tahir and M.D.S. Haslinda et al., 2008. Energy and nutrient intakes: Findings from the Malaysian Adult Nutrition Survey (MANS). Malaysian J. Nutr., 14: 1-24.
Malekzadeh, R., M. Mohamadnejad, S. Merat, A. Pourshams and A. Etemadi, 2005. Obesity pandemic: An Iranian perspective. Arch. Iranian Med., 8: 1-7.
Tarighat, A., R. Mahdavi, J. Ghaemaghami and A.R. Safaian, 1999. Comparing nutritional status of university female students living on and off campus in Ardabil. Res. Sci. J. Ardebil Univ. Med. Sci. Health Serv., 3: 44-45.
Poehlman, E.T. and E.S. Horton, 1999. Energy Needs: Assessment and Requirements in Humans. In: Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, Shils, M.E., J.A. Olson, M. Shike and A.C. Ross (Eds.). 9th Edn., Lippincott Williams and Wilkins Inc., Baltimore, MD, USA.
Kimm, S.Y. and E. Obarzanek, 2002. Childhood obesity: A new pandemic of the new millennium. Pediatrics, 110: 1003-1007.
Ogden, C.L., K.M. Flegal, M.D. Carroll and C.L. Johnson, 2002. Prevalence and trends in overweight among US children and adolescents, 1999-2000. JAMA., 288: 1728-1732.
Ahmad, M.N., S.K. Tukan and H.R. Takruri, 2006. Obesity and overweight in young adult females of Northern Badia of Jordan. Mal. J. Nutr., 12: 157-166.
Chan, D.C., G.F. Watts, P.H.R. Barrett and V. Burke, 2003. Waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index as predictors of adipose tissue compartments in men. Q. J. Med., 96: 441-447.
Tudor-Lococke, C., B.E. Anisworth, M.C. Whitte, R.W. Thompson, C.L. Addy and D.A. Jones, 2001. The relationship between pedometer-determined ambulatory activity and body composition variables. Int. J. Obes. Relat. Metab. Disord., 25: 1571-1578.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2014 Asian Network for Scientific Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
