Abstract
Background: Eating a healthy diet is acknowledged as one of the main factors in preventing malnutrition and non-communicable diseases. As young students represent a group more prone to poor dietary habits, the aim of this study was to analyse the lifestyle and the diets of a group of undergraduate students attending university in a city of central Italy, Siena.
Methods: 4700 students were invited to complete an online self-administered questionnaire about their food habits and lifestyle. The obtained data were analysed by Microsoft Excel 2021 and Stata 17 software, through the Mann-Whitney and the Kruskal-Wallis test; a p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: The students living at home consumed more fruit, vegetables, pasta, meat, fish, packaged foods, fruit juices, beer and wine; the only statistically significant differences were found for pizza and snacks. Even the gender influenced the consumption of many foods; women consumed more vegetables and coffee/tea, while males ate more pasta, meat, packaged foods, pizza, fries and beer. Among the leisure activities, the most performed was found to be sport; but the difference was statistically significant only between the two genders.
Conclusions: With the transition from secondary school to university, students are continuously challenged to make healthful food choices and they must be self-disciplined to take care of themselves. It would be important for health campaigns to be promoted in young adults to help them make the right choices.
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