Dietary patterns among students and their socio demographic variables in Dakshina Kannada: A Cross Sectional study

Abstract

Introduction:
The Indian subcontinent seems to be at a particular risk for NCDs due to the regularisation of unhealthy habits and sedentary lifestyle which is exposed quite early in life and becomes exaggerated and fixed with the adolescence period. Dietary habits are also useful in the sustainability of the ecosystem, with the human-food environment very much linked. Hence a good analysis of dietary patterns has become of consideration now.

Methodology:
It is a cross sectional study, conducted between a three month period,January to March 2024. It is a self administered questionnaire based study. A total of 214 students participated. Data was collected and analysed in Excel through SPSS.

Results:

The mean age of the participants was 20.35 years. 65.38% of the population had meals 3 times a day. 30.8% of the population never ate fruits in their diet. 44% of the students had vegetables every day and 36% had veggies 3-6 times a day. 56% had dairy products every day. 33.6% of them consumed fast/ processed food 1-2 times a week. 40.6% of the students consume sugary beverages once a week.

Discussion:
34% consume fruits only 1-2 times a week, another study by Cunningham SA et al shows that there is an average consumption of 15 times per week among the participants. Items like chocolate, packaged food, bakery food, fried food, Italian food, Chineese food and carbonated drinks are the most preferred food among adolescents.

Conclusion:
Dietary patterns has always been volatile and moreso in the adolescent age group. Like our study has shown, adolescents have uncertain behavior and erratic eating patterns. It is also seen that they have fast food or processed food a few times a week, though they also eat vegetables and protein rich food regularly.