Dietary Habits among Kuwaiti Physical Education College Students

Abstract

Physical education (PE) teachers can play an important role in reducing sedentary behavior and improving children and adolescent’s health habits (e.g., dietary intake). Often viewed as role models, PE teachers can effectively educate children, adolescents, and youth populations about healthy choices. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the dietary habits of current Kuwaiti college students studying PE who will become PE teachers within two to three years. Method A total of 418 PE college students (198 male & 220 female) were randomly selected to complete a validated self-reported questionnaire (Al-Hazzaa, Musaiger and Group, 2011), which is comprised of three categories: physical activity levels, sedentary behaviors, and dietary habits. The third category gathered data on students' food and drink intake per week, including how often they consumed breakfast, milk or dairy products, fast food, fruit, vegetables, chips, dessert, chocolate, sweetened soft drinks, and energy drinks. Results: An independent samples t-test showed that, compared with female PE students, males showed significantly higher scores in their weekly dietary habits. For example, eating breakfast intake at home, sweetened drinks consumption, vegetable, fruit, and dairy product intake as well as fast-food drinking and eating per week was more frequent in male PE students than females. Conclusion: The results indicate that although male PE students consume more unhealthy meals like fast-food, desserts, and chocolates, compared with females they tend to have healthier dietary habits overall.