Abstract
The transition from high school to university life is associated with increased body mass. The current study examined the relationship between physical activity levels and food habits among male students in the Preparatory Year at the University of Dammam in Saudi Arabia. Participants included 67 male students (age = 20.0 ±1.2 years, and BMI = 23.9 ±6.1 kg/m2), and the study employed a cross-sectional design and was conducted in the 2nd semester of 2014. Participants completed a dietary questionnaire and wore accelerometers (ActiGraph-wGT3X-BT) for 7 consecutive days. The active group consumed dairy products, vegetable, and fruits 4-6 times a week compared with the non-active group who consumed these types of food only 1-3 times a week. The active group had lower BMI compared to the non-active group (p = 0.048). A linear regression showed that living on campus was the strongest associated factor that explained change in MVPA. Active commuting through walking was associated with increased MVPA. Increasing MVPA from 30 to 60 minutes was associated with lower BMI and increased fruit and vegetable consumption in university male students in their preparatory year. key words: Self-reported dietary intake, MVPA, KSA.
Highlights
The transition from high school to university life is associated with increased body mass and decreased qualy of diet[1,2,3]
Meeting the moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) recommendation was associated with several protective factors, including adequate daily fruit and vegetable consumption, positive perception
There was no significant difference between groups based on sedentary time in daily light physical activity as measured by the Actigraphs, the difference was significant for MVPA between those participants who sat less than 9.5 hrs a day and their peers who sat more than 9.5 hrs a day (55.1 ±33.0 vs. 34.9 ±16.2 mins/day; p = 0.001)
Summary
The transition from high school to university life is associated with increased body mass and decreased qualy of diet[1,2,3] This phenomenon has been discussed under the expression ‘fresher 15’ which means students are expected to gain approximately up to 15 pounds of body mass after the first year of university. No significant associations were found among Hispanic males, while TV viewing was associated with greater participation in physical activity among black males[9] These differences between races and societies suggest the importance of carrying out further studies to examine the lifestyle of Saudi fresher students in order to design appropriate healthy lifestyle programs.
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