Abstract
This study examined the magnitude of malnutrition and eating attitude among 774 senior Addis Ababa university students proportionally selected and assessed for various socio demographic and anthropometric (BMI) statuses.The strength of the association between BMI status and independent variables was identified using odds ratio in the binary logistic regression. In addition the mean eating attitude captured through Likert scales and their weighted average were used to categorize the nutritional status level of the students. The burden of malnutrition was higher among campus residents, males, age group 18-27years, year two and three, from technology faculty, income below 500 ETB, educated family and cafe users. The highest eating attitude score is observed in the item “I like to eat (3.19). None of the covariates had significant association with malnutrition. To improve the university environment and produce productive graduates, the prevailing nutritional problem including some of the barriers though not significantly deserves the attention of the university including the ministry of education as the problem cannot be tackled by an isolated vertical approach.
Highlights
Malnutrition is the direct consequence of inadequate dietary intake, the presence of disease, or their interaction in most cases [1]
The new environment would definitely entail students to increased responsibility for their meal preparation and consumption of unhealthy dieting ranging from high intake of fast food, skipping meal, insufficient physical activity, low intake of fruits and vegetables further expose them to different forms of malnutrition which is interfering with the role of nutrition to propel sustainable development[11,12,13,14]
Eating behavior next to physical activity and Science Journal of Public Health 2016; 4(5): 401-407 sedentary behavior are among other important factor influencing the nutritional status of the students [15] in addition to the rapid changes in physical growth and psychosocial development which have placed students as nutritionally vulnerable groups [16,17,18]
Summary
Malnutrition is the direct consequence of inadequate dietary intake, the presence of disease, or their interaction in most cases [1]. Various studies including Ethiopia have indicated that nutritional problems shared similar factors in terms of their etiology [3,4,5,6,7,8,9] These factors are interrelated and could span throughout the life cycle if timely intervention is not in place and demands for proper planning and effective preventative intervention program. The selection of unhealthy food and high cost of healthy foods may have a negative impact on university student’s eating attitude needs the attention of the university management [19] Such evidences in the Ethiopian university context are either limited or nil in the proposed study sites. The present study examined the magnitude of the malnutrition among university students and uncovers the predictors for evidence based intervention and allow the current and future generation of students to be free from abnormal nutrition and improved academic performance since the government of Ethiopia is committed to bring upfront the value of nutrition as its development agenda
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