Research on the peculiarities of students' nutrition

Nutrition is the one of the most important factors, determining the human health and life quality. As the young body matures, there are changes in physiological and biochemical processes, i.e. the basic metabolic and energy consumption processes, this nutrition becomes a very important factor directing the organism of a young person favorably as eating habits and nutrition are essential factors assessing the pathogenesis of many diseases in every stage of life. The aim - determine the VU and LUHS students eating habits. In 2011-2012 we conducted anonymous questionnaire survey involving 863 students. 413 students were from LUHS and 450 from VU: 648 girls and 202 boys. (13 student's did not indicate their gender). Respondents were 20-24 years of age. There were investigated students eating habits, attitudes towards eating habits and addictions. The anonymous questionnaire was composed on the basis of Lithuanian and foreign research literature. It consisted of 31 questions aiming at investigating the peculiarities of students’ nutrition. Research data were processed using SPSS 17.0 statistical package. The frequency of risk factors (in percent) was compared between the case and the control groups, the level of significance was chosen at 0.05. The differences in the indices were considered to be significant when p value did not exceed 0.05 (p < 0.05). Hypothesis about the independence of factors were checked calculating chi square (x2) criterion. Our study found that while people are young, some of them are already complaining about having health problems. Most students choose food according to their taste qualities, consume too few vegetables and fish products, consuming too much salt. Most students like to have a snack between main meals. Boys consumed significantly more alcohol, as well as a high percentage of VU students smoke. A review of all test results showed that students LUHS eating habits are more favorable to health than VU among students