<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The present study tries to assess the nutritional status and dietary behaviours in a group of undergraduate students in order to characterize their food habits and assess the quality of their diet. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 220 undergraduate university students (110 male and 110 female) aged between 19 and 24 years from the Food Department of Saad Dahlab Blida 1 University (Algeria). The data collection and nutritional evaluation were carried out using DIAL nutritional software. Male participants had significantly (P &lt; 0.005) higher body mass index (BMI) when compared to females. Significantly higher percentages of female students (P &lt; 0.005) had tried a low-fat diet (P = 0.0075) and a low-carbohydrate diet (P &lt; 0.005). The prevalence of overweight was higher among males compared to females. In contrast, a greater percentage of underweight students were observed in the group of female subjects. Related to micronutrient intake, a significant difference by sex was observed for vitamin A, C, folic acid, iron, calcium, and sodium intakes. However, females consumed more food containing vitamins C and A, whereas males’ intake of calcium, sodium, folic acid, and iron was higher than the corresponding values observed in females. To conclude, these students reported a diet characterized by a high variety of cereal products and a moderate amount of vegetables, milk and dairy products, meat, fish and eggs, dietary fats and beverages, whereas the consumption of fruits was highly infrequent.</p>
</abstract>

The present study tries to assess the nutritional status and dietary behaviours in a group of undergraduate students in order to characterize their food habits and assess the quality of their diet. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 220 undergraduate university students (110 male and 110 female) aged between 19 and 24 years from the Food Department of Saad Dahlab Blida 1 University (Algeria). The data collection and nutritional evaluation were carried out using DIAL nutritional software. Male participants had significantly (P < 0.005) higher body mass index (BMI) when compared to females. Significantly higher percentages of female students (P < 0.005) had tried a low-fat diet (P = 0.0075) and a low-carbohydrate diet (P < 0.005). The prevalence of overweight was higher among males compared to females. In contrast, a greater percentage of underweight students were observed in the group of female subjects. Related to micronutrient intake, a significant difference by sex was observed for vitamin A, C, folic acid, iron, calcium, and sodium intakes. However, females consumed more food containing vitamins C and A, whereas males’ intake of calcium, sodium, folic acid, and iron was higher than the corresponding values observed in females. To conclude, these students reported a diet characterized by a high variety of cereal products and a moderate amount of vegetables, milk and dairy products, meat, fish and eggs, dietary fats and beverages, whereas the consumption of fruits was highly infrequent.

Nutritional status and dietary behaviours of Northern Algeria university students

Bioinformatics, Applied Microbiology and Biomolecules Laboratory

Faculty of Sciences, Department of Agronomy

Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Life

Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Alimentaria

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The present study tries to assess the nutritional status and dietary behaviours in a group of undergraduate students in order to characterize their food habits...

Nutritional status and dietary behaviours of Northern Algeria university students

Published Online: Dec 17, 2021

Page range: 1 - 13

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausal-2021-0001

Keywords
food intake, diet, university students, macro- and micronutrients

© 2021 A. Aidoud et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Nutritional status and dietary behaviours of Northern Algeria university students

Published Online: Dec 17, 2021

Page range: 1 - 13

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausal-2021-0001

Keywordsfood intake, diet, university students, macro- and micronutrients

© 2021 A. Aidoud et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
food intake, diet, university students, macro- and micronutrients