Assessment of Nutrition Pattern among Nursing Students‏ ‏at Misurata University

Abstract

Good nutrition pattern is reflecting a healthy and nutritionally adequate diet to help promote health and prevent chronic disease for current and future generations. The present study was conducted to assess dietary patterns and eating behavior among nursing students at Misurata University. In addition to clarify the relationship of hemoglobin level with gender, BMI, dietary patterns and eating behavior. Sixty-one students aged 18-30 years old were selected randomly. Pearson correlation was used to find out a correlation of hemoglobin with measured parameters. The results were revealed that, significantly (P˂0.05) correlation of hemoglobin level with regular breakfast intake, practice tea and coffee intake immediately after meal. There was no significantly (P>0.05) correlation of hemoglobin level with gender, Body Mass Index (BMI), fast meal and animal product intake. Some negative dietary habits were observed among participants, who were skipped breakfast and ate fast meals many times during a week. The majority of students didn’t eat enough rich heme iron food such as fish, eggs and red meat. Whenever, many students were not get diverting food frequently. The result also revealed that, the majority of participants have consumed many servings of dairy products on daily base in replacement of meat, fruits and vegetables servings, thus may be attributed to community dietary habits, cultural and economic factors. The nutrition awareness is necessary to gain healthy lifestyle and desirable dietary habits as well as regular breakfast, physical exercise, food fortification and diet diversification.