Assessment of Dietary Habits among Male Medical Students Residing in Hostels at Ameer-Ud-Din Medical College: A Cross-Sectional Study, Lahore 2023

Assessment of Dietary Habits of Male Medical Students Residing in Hostels

Abstract

Background: Diet strongly affects the overall health of an individual. Medical students are expected to have good dietary habits. The diet of medical students living in hostels is often compromised. Objective: To assess the dietary habits of hosteller male medical students of Ameer-Ud-Din Medical College in relation to demographics. Study Design: Cross-sectional comparative study. Settings: Boys’ hostels of Ameer-Ud-Din Medical College, Lahore Pakistan. Duration: Six months after approval by ethical review board. Methods: 79 hostel residing male medical students for two months after ethical clearance. Data collected by the researcher using proforma having demographics and dietary habits’ variables. The Chi square test used for seeing the relation of students’ eating habits with demographics taking P value of < 0.05 as significant. Results: Out of a total of 79 students, 26.6% were second year MBBS students. Those having a monthly family income of ≥ 50,000 rupees were 79.7% and 78.5% of the students had non-working mothers. Only 19% had home cooked meals supplied by vendors daily while 43% of the students ate out daily. Only 21.5% had breakfast daily. Daily consumption of roti/bread was by 79.5% of participants, rice (any form) consumption was by 2.5%, daily meat/chicken by 12.7% and daily vegetables and fruits by only 2.5% of the participants. Chi square value was not significant for eating habits with demographic variables like monthly household income and mothers’ employment status. Conclusion: Majority of the students did not have breakfast in morning and ate out daily. Only few had home cooked meals, fruits and vegetables daily. Demographics had no significant relation with students’ eating habits.