Avaliação da alimentação de recém-ingressos nos cursos de nutrição e ciências biológicas em uma universidade pública

Abstract

The dietary pattern directly influences the nutritional status of individuals and the new university students are a particularly vulnerable group, since they undergo many habits changes, some of them related to nourishment. Skipping meals, consumption of fast food and meal replacement for processed snacks are recurring attitudes of this group. The aim of the study was to evaluate characteristics and eating habits of new college students in the courses of Nutrition and Biological Sciences at the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF). This is a cross-sectional study, consisting in a sample of 112 students of both sexes, newly enrolled in two courses at UFJF. The food profile was assessed using a self-administered questionnaire, with questions taken from the questionnaire of the Telephone Survey Surveillance System for Risk and Protective Factors for Chronic Diseases (VIGITEL). Statistical analyzes were performed with the STATA software (version 13.0) and the 0.05 significance level (5%) was adopted in all analytical procedures for data interpretation. Regular consumption of fruits declared by the sample was low (34.82%). Significant associations were found between income below the minimum wage and insufficient consumption of vegetables, also between not practicing physical activity and low consumption of salad, red meat with fat and chicken skin. It was found that new university students had an inadequate dietary pattern in several aspects, like low consumption of fruits and vegetables. Issues related to income and practicing sports may influence the food consumption.