Milk and Dairy Product Consumption Habits of University Students in Turkey

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate the milk and dairy product consumption of 361 randomly selected students from Ondokuz Mayıs University (OMU) through a questionnaire form applied through face-to-face interviews in the province of Samsun in Turkey. The rate of students who were consuming milk was 86.43% (86.14% in females, 86.79% in males, P=0.980), the rate of students who were consuming one glass of milk daily was 92.35% (94.47% in females, 89.61 % in males, P=0.201) and the rate of students who were consuming milk daily was 18.28% (19.80% in females, 16.35% in males, P=0.400). Of the students who do not drink milk, 71.59% (65.77% in females, 78.69% in males, P=0.134) stated that they did not have any reason for not consuming milk, or they did "not have the habit of drinking milk. Packaged milk (UHT, sterilized, pasteurized) was being consumed more (60.23%) than non-packaged milk (39.77%) (P=0.001). Female students (80.30%) and male students (79.74%) were found to prefer dairy products to milk (P=0.896). In conclusion, it was determined that generally, OMU students had a good level of milk and dairy product consumption. However, in particular, students' regular daily milk consumption habits were insufficient. Also, gender was found to influence preferences and consumption habits.