Mohammad Mahmuda, Chowdhury Muhammad Abdul Baker, Islam Md Nazrul, Ahmed Arifa, Zahan Farha Nusrat, Akter Mst Farzana, Mila Shamima Naznin, Tani Tania Akhter, Akter Tanjila, Islam Tanjila, Uddin Md Jamal
Department of Statistics, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh.
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Florida, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Int J Adolesc Med Health. 2018 Dec 17;33(2):/j/ijamh.ahead-of-print/ijamh-2018-0105/ijamh-2018-0105.xml. doi: 10.1515/ijamh-2018-0105.
University students generally face a variety of challenges. During this period of life, they practice some unhealthy eating patterns and lifestyles. Therefore, we aimed to assess the health awareness status of university students from the northeast part of Bangladesh and to evaluate its associated factors.
We conducted a cross-sectional study using a stratified random sampling among public and private university students from the northeast region of Bangladesh and interviewed 1143 students. We used a self-reported questionnaire, including questions related to awareness status, lifestyle practice, dietary habit and socio-demographic factors. To assess students' health awareness status and its association with their lifestyle practices and socio-demographic factors, we used logistic regression models.
The majority (61%) of the students were not aware of better health status and their dietary habits were not adequate. Smokers [odds ratio (OR): 0.66; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.44, 0.99] were less likely to be aware of better health status. The participants who thought that they were leading a healthy lifestyle were less likely (OR: 0.71; CI: 0.56, 0.92) to be aware. Moreover, frequency of participating in sports and the psychological factors related to eating behaviors were significantly (p < 0.05) associated with health awareness status.
Our study findings may help to create a foundation for possible interventional programs on health awareness and nutritional education to improve the health awareness status and dietary behavior of university students. To prevent students from poor eating habits while feeling happy, effective programs (e.g. seminars, projects and media campaigns) should be held, which may include enhancing healthy and recommended amounts of food consumption.
大学生通常面临各种挑战。在这段人生时期，他们养成了一些不健康的饮食模式和生活方式。因此，我们旨在评估孟加拉国东北部大学生的健康意识状况，并评估其相关因素。
我们在孟加拉国东北部的公立和私立大学生中采用分层随机抽样进行了一项横断面研究，共访谈了1143名学生。我们使用了一份自我报告问卷，包括与意识状况、生活方式习惯、饮食习惯和社会人口学因素相关的问题。为了评估学生的健康意识状况及其与生活方式习惯和社会人口学因素的关联，我们使用了逻辑回归模型。
大多数（61%）学生不了解更佳的健康状况，且他们的饮食习惯不佳。吸烟者[比值比（OR）：0.66；95%置信区间（CI）：0.44，0.99]了解更佳健康状况的可能性较小。认为自己生活方式健康的参与者了解情况的可能性较小（OR：0.71；CI：0.56，0.92）。此外，参加体育活动的频率以及与饮食行为相关的心理因素与健康意识状况显著相关（p<0.05）。
我们的研究结果可能有助于为开展提高大学生健康意识状况和饮食行为的健康意识及营养教育干预项目奠定基础。为了防止学生在感到快乐的同时养成不良饮食习惯，应举办有效的项目（如研讨会、项目和媒体宣传活动），其中可能包括增加健康和推荐量的食物消费。
