Dietary risk behaviors for chronic non-communicable diseases in Brazilian medical students

Abstract

ABSTRACT College students in general commonly present unhealthy habits and, as a result, they can develop chronic non-communicable diseases. The present study aimed to assess the prevalence of clustering of dietary risk behaviors for chronic non-communicable diseases and associated factors among medical students. A cross-sectional study was carried out with 231 students in the 1st, 7th and 11th semesters of undergraduate medical courses at three institutions in northern Minas Gerais, Brazil. Information on food intake was obtained through a survey of risk and protection factors for chronic diseases conducted by telephone. Statistical analysis was carried out using Poisson regression with robust variance. With regard to the clustering of dietary risk behaviors for chronic diseases, 30.8% of the students had three or more such behaviors. In the multivariate analysis, it was found that the prevalence of dietary risk behaviors was significantly higher among first-semester students. It is believed that students in other semesters had a lower prevalence of clustering of dietary risk behaviors because they had in-depth knowledge about the benefits of a healthy diet.