Dietary pattern and prevalence of overweight and obesity among undergraduates of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta

Abstract

Background: Physical inactivity and unhealthy dietary habits are among the main behaviors that potentially have adverse effects on weight status in young adulthood and consequently, the future health of adults.
Objective: The study investigated the dietary pattern and prevalence of overweight and obesity among undergraduate students at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.
Methods: This study was cross-sectional and descriptive survey in design. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 300 respondents. Instruments for data collection were questionnaires including 24-hour dietary recall, food frequency questionnaires, global physical activity questionnaires, and anthropometric tools. Height, weight, waist, and hip circumference were computed to determine the respondents' body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio respectively. Descriptive statistics were carried out on data collected with SPSSV20.0.
Result: Respondents were between ages 16-29 years with mean and standard deviation age, height, weight, and BMI as 21.46 years ±2.30, 1.69m±0.08, 64.82kg±10.29 and 22.62kg/m2±3.48 respectively. The proportion of underweight, normal-weight, overweight, and obese were 9.7%, 69.0%, 18.3%, and 2.9% respectively. 26.0% of respondents had abdominal obesity. 60.7% engaged in high physical activities. 25.6%, 10.7%, and 63.7% had inadequate, adequate, and excess energy/calorie intake relative to RDA. Cumulative weekly most consumed foods were pasta, sugar, biscuits, garri, etc., and low intake of fruits and legumes.