Impact of Eating Context on Dietary Choices of College Students: Evidence from the HEALTHY-UNICT Project

Maugeri, Andrea; Lio, Roberta Magnano San; Favara, Giuliana; Rosa, Maria Clara La; Mastra, Claudia La; Riela, Paolo Marco; Guarnera, Luca; Battiato, Sebastiano; Barchitta, Martina; Agodi, Antonella

doi:10.3390/nu14204418

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Some studies ( 10 , 25 ) report that students who live away from home develop worse habits than those who live at home, associating this with a decrease in the intake of home-cooked meals. In a similar vein, a study showed that eating away from home was associated with a lower trend to consume vegetables, fruits and legumes and a higher predisposition to consume processed meat, salty snacks and carbonated beverages ( 15 ) .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…There are multiple factors that affect the quality of diet: demographic characteristics, unhealthy behaviours – such as sedentary lifestyle – and family and social influence ( 14 ) . In fact, a possible association has been established between the social context – eating more frequently outside home and accompanied – and changes in dietary habits ( 15 ) . In addition, alcohol consumption is an important aspect in undergraduate students, a population prone to risky alcohol consumption ( 16 , 17 ) .…”

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confidence: 99%

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Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in medical students

González-Sosa

Ruiz-Hernández

Puente-Fernández

et al. 2023

Public Health Nutr.

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Objective The protective effect of the Mediterranean Diet (MeDi) is undisputed. However, adherence to MeDi has decreased in recent years, particularly in young people. The aim of this study was to evaluate adherence to MeDi in medical students and to assess the influence of knowledge acquisition as well as other factors on dietary compliance. Design A cross-sectional study was conducted on medical students. The data were obtained through anonymous surveys that collected demographic characteristics, medical history, alcohol and tobacco consumption, physical activity and adherence to MeDi – using 14-point Mediterranean Diet Adherence Score (MEDAS)-. Adherence to MeDi and related factors were evaluated by univariate and multivariable analysis. Participants Medical students from the first to the sixth year of the 2018-2019 academic year. Setting The study was conducted at the university of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Results Of 589 respondents (73% women) mean aged 22 years (range 18 to 39), 58.9% showed good adherence to MeDi. Adherence was significantly associated with age (p=0.017) but not with sex or the presence of comorbidities. Independently, adherence to MeDi was higher in last academic courses (OR=2.1; 95% CI=1.3-3.2; p=0.001), in those who consumed alcohol more frequently (OR=1.5; 95% CI=1.0-2.1; p=0.039) and in those who practiced more exercise (OR=1.5; 95% CI=1.2-1.9; p<0.001). Conclusions Half of all medical students did not have a good adherence to MeDi. Adherence was higher at older age, in higher academic years and related to greater physical activity. It would be convenient to quantify dietary knowledge as well as implement nutritional educational programs, favoring a healthy lifestyle.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in medical students

González-Sosa

Ruiz-Hernández

Puente-Fernández

et al. 2023

Public Health Nutr.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Furthermore, the food habits measurement was not added based on this telephone survey. However, this study focused on the degree of infuence of food habits by COVID-19; hence, it is necessary to use innovative approaches and tools to assess them in the future [27,28], especially in China with more than one billion Internet users. Based on a large-scale survey administered in Wuhan City, the results provide direct evidence for the efects of the pandemic lockdown on BMI and overweight/obesity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of the COVID-19 Epidemic on Body Mass Index: Findings from a Large Survey during Wuhan Lockdown

Wang

2023

Health & Social Care in the Community

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This study aimed to explore the effect of the Wuhan lockdown on body mass index (BMI) among Wuhan residents as well as factors including food habits affected and changes in physical activity mediating the association. As a survey of the Wuhan lockdown, a random digit dialing method was used to sample residents aged 18 years and older. A computer-aided telephone interview was applied to survey 11,223 residents in Wuhan City in July 2020. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and mediation analysis were used to analyze the influence of the Wuhan lockdown on BMI. Demographic characteristics, lifestyle characteristics, and health status differed statistically significantly between residents living in and those who left Wuhan during the lockdown (mean BMI, 23.05 ± 0.04 kg/m2 and 22.34 ± 0.06 kg/m2, respectively). The mean BMI among residents living in Wuhan was 0.42 kg/m2 higher ( P < 0.001) than that of residents who left Wuhan during the lockdown, as determined by multivariate OLS regression analysis. Residents living in Wuhan during the lockdown had higher BMI among those aged 18–29 and 30–44 years ( P < 0.001), with no difference among those aged 45+ years. The association between living in Wuhan and increased BMI was the strongest among residents who were overweight/obese. The mediation analysis results showed an indirect effect path with living in Wuhan (through decreased physical activity and increasing BMI) and the direct effect of living in Wuhan during the lockdown. The lack of association between living in Wuhan and increased BMI among residents aged 45+ years was due to the indirect influence of living in Wuhan affecting food habits. The findings indicated that the lockdown in Wuhan city increased residents’ BMI, especially among those who were young or overweight/obese, partly because of decreased physical activity.

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“…Although many studies evaluated the relationship of single nutrients and foods with pregnancy and neonatal outcomes [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36], these elements are not consumed alone but in complex dietary patterns. To meet the need of capturing the complex interactions between nutrients, foods and other relevant factors, the research is moving to the development of innovative tools for data collection [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] and to the analysis of dietary patterns, using both a priori and a posteriori methods [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Maternal Dietary Patterns on Birth Weight for Gestational Age: Findings from the MAMI-MED Cohort

et al. 2023

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Limited evidence exists on the effects of maternal dietary patterns on birth weight, and most studies conducted so far did not adjust their findings for gestational age and sex, leading to potentially biased conclusions. In the present study, we applied a novel method, namely the clustering on principal components, to derive dietary patterns among 667 pregnant women from Catania (Italy) and to evaluate the associations with birth weight for gestational age. We identified two clusters reflecting distinct dietary patterns: the first one was mainly characterized by plant-based foods (e.g., potatoes, cooked and raw vegetables, legumes, soup, fruits, nuts, rice, wholemeal bread), fish and white meat, eggs, butter and margarine, coffee and tea; the second one consisted mainly of junk foods (sweets, dips, salty snacks, and fries), pasta, white bread, milk, vegetable and olive oils. Regarding small gestational age births, the main predictors were employment status and primiparity, but not the adherence to dietary patterns. By contrast, women belonging to cluster 2 had higher odds of large for gestational age (LGA) births than those belonging to cluster 1 (OR = 2.213; 95%CI = 1.047–4.679; p = 0.038). Moreover, the odds of LGA increased by nearly 11% for each one-unit increase in pregestational BMI (OR = 1.107; 95%CI = 1.053–1.163; p < 0.001). To our knowledge, the present study is the first to highlight a relationship between adherence to an unhealthy dietary pattern and the likelihood of giving birth to a LGA newborn. This evidence adds to the current knowledge about the effects of diet on birth weight, which, however, remains limited and controversial.

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Impact of Eating Context on Dietary Choices of College Students: Evidence from the HEALTHY-UNICT Project

Cited by 9 publications

References 31 publications

Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in medical students

Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in medical students

Effect of the COVID-19 Epidemic on Body Mass Index: Findings from a Large Survey during Wuhan Lockdown

The Effect of Maternal Dietary Patterns on Birth Weight for Gestational Age: Findings from the MAMI-MED Cohort

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