Food habits and the prevalence of obesity and hypertension among the students of federal college of agriculture, Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Abstract

Objectives: The specific objectives of this study are to describe the socioeconomics of the respondents, access the respondents’ frequency of food consumption, determine the respondents’rate of foods consumed weekly, determine effect of respondents’ food habit on obesity and hypertension prevalence and identify the factors influencing respondents’ food habits in the study area. Methodology: A sample of 238 participants (males and females) were randomly selected from 7 Departments in a descriptive cross-sectional survey. A semi-structured, validated and pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was used to generate data on socio demographic, food dietary, food frequency and anthropometric characteristics (Body Mass Index (BMI)and blood pressure).Results: The study showed that 35.30% of the respondents were resident in the hostel, 35.7% were ≥28 years of age, 41.2% of their parents had secondary education, while 31.9% of them earned pocket money of N30001 -N40000 on monthly basis. About 37.4% ate three times daily, 41.2% ate depending on where they were 2.4% preferred eating their foods boiled, where 26.2% preferred fried foods. The respondents (34.9%) ate their lunch with friends. It was generally seen that a low percentage of them consumed alcohol beverages, beer was leading (29%) among all the listed alcoholic drinks. Noodles and bread were consumed more (50.0% and 43.2%), bambara groundnuts (okpa) (43.70%) and beans (30.25%) consumption. Yam and garri/fufuhad 42.44% and 33.61% consumption respectively. Beef and frozen fish (52.52% and 48.32%) and water leaf and onions (53.78% and 51.68%) respectively. Over half of the consumers in fruits had other fruits not listed (66.81%) while Plums had 51.68% consumption. Groundnuts was 46.64%, whilst tigernuts, 39.08%. Stimulating drinks and alcoholic drinks were 39.92% and 32.77% respectively. Honey and sugar had low 26.89% and 20.19% respectively consumption among sweeteners. Biscuits and tapioca among snacks were 51.26% and 42.89% respectively. Fried yam and chin-chin were 39.08% and 33.19% respectively. Over half of the percentage had normal BMI (66.8%) (18.5-25.5 kg/m2), while about half (54.8%) of the respondents had normal blood pressure (<120/<80 mmHg) followedby prehypertension (41.4%) (120-139.9/80-90mmHg). Moreover, the determinant to food habit on obesity and hypertension predisposition by the respondents wereeducational status and income. Also, the factors influencing respondents’ food habits were availability of food, income of the person, food cost and educational statusConclusion: There was no high negative impact of food consumption on the BMI and blood pressure of the students. Therefore, it could be deduced that the students feeding habits did not affect both their BMI and blood pressure.