Changing nutrition habits: Snack consumption, meal skipping and anthropometric parameters of university students in Turkey

Abstract

Obesity in young adults is an important public health problem. Due to irregular lifestyle; eating snacks, skipping meal and obesity has increased in developing countries during the past decades. This study examined eating snacks and skipping meal, obesity and anthropometric parameters of university students in Turkey. A total of 892 (27%) participating students were skipping of meals and consumption of snacks were found in 41% of students. Consumption of snacks and skipping of meals are significantly related with obesity, body mass index, waist circumference, waist:hip ratio and waist:height ratio (p <0.05). Significantly more female students consume snacks than males. The results indicate poor eating habit was a major contributing factor in overweight and obesity among university students in Turkey. © 2019, SEAMEO TROPMED Network. All rights reserved.