Determination of Factors Effected Dietary Glycemic Index in Turkish University Students

We aimed to determine any factors like as smoking, being regular activity affect dietary glycemic index in university students. This study was carried out at Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey. The participants were 577 randomly selected Turkish healthy female university students aged 17-32 years. The survey included a questionnaire that assessed demographic, 3-day self-reported nutrient intake. The dietary intake was based on the of the recipients. The 3 days included 1 weekend day and the previous or next 2 days. A weighted GI was designed to the diet of the participants with the use of values from the 2002 international table of GI values. BMI was calculated from measurements of height and weight. The differences between living area (house or dormitory)/regular physical activity (do or not)/smoking/nutrition education and mean dietary glycemic index was determined by Independent Sample t-Test. Dietary glycemic index was found high (>70) in 98.4% of participants. Mean dietary glycemic index was found 85.1±6.80 and it was significantly (p<0.05) differences between participants staying house or dormitory, doing physical activity or not, smoking or not and educated on nutrition or not. Participant’s who are smoking, staying dormitory and no educated about nutrition dietary glycemix index was found high than who are not smoking, staying house, doing regular physical activity and educated on nutrition. Conclusion and Implication: It’s important that educated students on health and nutrition to prevent their diets content high glycemic index. It can be help to prevent obesity in the future