Health Attributes of College Freshman

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PURPOSE: To describe the health attributes of male and female college freshman enrolled in a university required wellness course, and to make a comparison with known rates of said behaviors. METHODS: 124 college freshman (59% female) enrolled in a university required wellness course participated in the study. Research was approved by the IRB at North Dakota State University (NDSU), and each participant signed an informed consent. Each student completed an electronic survey including self-reported height, cigarette and alcohol use, and frequency of breakfast consumption, during the fall of 2005. Participants then reported to the lab where their weight was measured and used to calculate BMI. RESULTS: The mean BMI for the entire group was 24.1. The mean BMI for males was 24.8 and the females mean BMI was 23.1 (p=0.003). Forty percent of students reported eating breakfast three or less days in a typical week. Thirteen percent reported cigarette use in a typical week, while 44% reported drinking at least one alcoholic beverage during the typical week. Of the 69 (56%) students using cigarettes or tobacco, 10 (14 %) of the people used both substances. CONCLUSION: The average BMI for this population is in the “normal” range. Breakfast consumption is lower than the recommendation by Healthy People 2010 which states that breakfast should be consumed on most, if not all, days of the week. Unfortunately, 2 out of 5 subj ects in this population are not eating breakfast often enough to meet this recommendation. The frequency of smoking for this population is well below the national average, even though all students are of legal age to purchase tobacco products. The percentage of students using alcohol is well below the overall rate for this campus, and may reflect restraint in purchasing/consuming due to being under the legal drinking age. Over time, student drinking rates appear to increase. In addition, NDSU requires one of a variety of wellness classes of all its students, with this particular one requiring regular physical activity participation; therefore, self-selection bias may be responsible for the lower rates of negative behaviors and normal BMI of this population.