engleski

Relationship between dieting practices, body mass index and consumption of fruit and vegetables in a group of Croatian university students

Behaviours on fruit and vegetables consumption and dieting practices are not completely understood. Since university students are in a period of heightened concern over obesity, this study aimed to assess the dieting practices among underweight, normal weight and overweight students and to examine the related fruit and vegetables consumption. Dieting practices were examined among 602 Croatian university students (143 males, 459 females) with average age of 22.6± ; 1.19 years and average BMI of 21.63± ; 2.71 kgm-2. Study included specially designed survey questionnaire consisted of demographic variables, questions on recent dieting practices and quantified food frequency questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and parametric variables were analysed using Student’ s t-test, ANOVA and Pearson’ s r correlations coefficients. During the survey, 29.2% of students reported dieting while 70.8 % of students were classified as non-dieters. Among dieters, 1.7%were underweight, 85.2% were normal weight and 13.1% were overweight. Among non- dieters the mentioned distributions according to BMI were 7.7%, 83.8% and 8.5%, respectively. According to dieting practices, significant differences were observed among underweight groups in BMI (p<0.000), while among those with normal weight differences were established in intake of energy (p<0.03), polyunsaturated fatty acids (p<0.02) and cereals (p<0.04). Food group analysis showed that dieting practices were inversely correlated to consumption of vegetables (r=-0.32, p<0.44), nuts (r=-0.40, p<0.32), citrus fruits (r=-0.03, p<0.45) and other fruit (r=-0.6, p<0.09). Statistically significant difference was observed in consumption of potatoes (r=-0.10, p<0.01). Conclusively, results indicated differences in food habits according to dieting practices but they were not related to overall amounts of fruit and vegetables consumed. However gender specific differences were observed. Female dieters reported less consumption of legumes and potatoes (P< 0.05) while males dieters reported fewer consumption of fruit (P< 0.05) compared to non-dieters.

fruits and vegetables consumption; university students

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