Abstract
The level of meat consumption is one of the main deviations from the Mediterranean diet pattern in Spanish university students. The objective of this cross-sectional descriptive study is to analyze the association between sociodemographic factors and the consumption of fresh and processed meat in Spanish university students. This study is part of a cohort of 11 Spanish universities with 9862 university students (UniHcos Project). A descriptive analysis and a chi2 test were carried out to assess differences between personal and sociodemographic variables and meat consumption, and binary logistic regression analysis to assess factors associated with consumption; 19.9% and 73.5% met the recommendations for meat-fresh and meat-processed consumption, respectively. Only 3.8% of students meet the recommendations for both fresh and processed meat. Statistically significant differences were found between sex, BMI, employment, housing, and coexistence regarding compliance with recommendations. Female employed students living in rental accommodations with a partner are more likely to meet the recommendations for fresh meats while male, normal weight, employed students living in rental accommodations with a partner are more likely to meet the recommendations for processed meats. There is a lack of compliance with the recommendations for consumption of fresh meat in Spanish university students, differences in compliance among students of differing regions and an association with sex, employment, housing, and coexistence regarding compliance.
Highlights
IntroductionA healthy diet should provide the optimal amounts of energy and nutrients essential for life [1].The European recommendations indicate that a balanced diet is based on an adequate energy contribution of each macronutrient, corresponding 10%–15% to proteins [2].Previous studies conducted in the university population have shown a decrease in the consumption of fruits, vegetables, cereals, legumes, and fish, together with an increase in the consumption of meats, sweets, some snacks, and sugary drinks, which suggests a decrease in the adherence to the traditionalMediterranean diet (MD) in the young-adult population [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]
It was observed that the percentage or number of students who declare to live with their parents was greater than those who live in a rental apartment
The results show that female employed students living in rental accommodations with a partner are more likely to meet the recommendations for consumption of fresh meats while male employed students living in rental accommodations with a partner are more likely to meet the recommendations for consumption of processed meats
Summary
A healthy diet should provide the optimal amounts of energy and nutrients essential for life [1].The European recommendations indicate that a balanced diet is based on an adequate energy contribution of each macronutrient, corresponding 10%–15% to proteins [2].Previous studies conducted in the university population have shown a decrease in the consumption of fruits, vegetables, cereals, legumes, and fish, together with an increase in the consumption of meats, sweets, some snacks, and sugary drinks, which suggests a decrease in the adherence to the traditionalMediterranean diet (MD) in the young-adult population [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Different meta-analyses show that a high consumption of red and processed meat can increase total mortality [12], different types of cancer [13,14,15,16], and cardiovascular diseases [17], which are currently considered one of the main causes of death in young adults [18]. This fact is aggravated, in addition, by the low adherence to the MD of the students [6]
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