Awareness of Dietary Habits and Balanced Lifestyle Among Physical Therapy Students

Abstract

Obesity has now-a-days became global epidemic and the fifth leading cause of death. A strong relation has been observed between obesity and mortality among the general population Objective: To observe the nutritional status of the food intake in physical therapy students to make a guideline to modify the dietary habits. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted in January 2022 to June 2022 among the students at Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), Karachi. The minimum sample size was calculated as 75. A self-designed questionnaire was used to collect data from the students. IBM SPSS Version-26 was used for data analysis. Results: The average weight and height of the students was 52.8 ± 9.5 SD (kg) and 5.34 ± 0.27 SD (feet). The BMI was measured as (height)2 / weight. The mean BMI calculated was 20.4 ± 3.4 SD. Based on the BMI, the frequency of overweight students was 13 (8.2%) and obese were 2 (1.3%). Remaining 52 (32.9%) were under- weight. The majority of students i.e., 82.2% reported that they eat two to three meals per day. Consumption of fruits and vegetables was least common. Less than one-fourth of the students said that they intake fruits on regularly. Snack consumption other than regular meals was about 21.5% among students. Conclusions: Students were found to have normal weight. The current study indicates that most of the students were well aware and concerned of obesity and over-weight and they tried to maintain their body weight by controlling diet.