Eating habits and body weight profiles among undergraduate students in UiTM Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Poor eating habits, smoking, alcohol consumption and physical inactivity may augment risk for developing obesity. Obesity, known as a condition of abnormal excess body fat, is associated with a large number of debilitating and life-threatening disorders, such as major increase in associated cardiovascular, metabolic and other non-communicable diseases. This study determined the body weight profiles based on World Health Organization (WHO) body mass index (BMI) classification and to compare eating habits by gender among undergraduate students in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Puncak Alam Campus, Selangor, Malaysia. A cross-sectional survey was conducted between 19
^th
of July and 9
^th
of August 2010. The adapted self-administered questionnaires on eating habits and body weight profiles had been randomly distributed to undergraduate students from year-one until year-four of academic year. Out of 500 distributed questionnaires, only 460 questionnaires were returned and completed (response rate: 92.0%). Anthropometric assessment showed that the majority of the students (68.3%) possessed normal weight, whereby a major proportion of these were male students (56.7%). In contrast, the prevalence of overweight (13.5%) and obesity class I (2.8%) was not common among students as a whole, other than there were more female students in these two groups than the males. For eating habits, majority of the respondents (76.7%) had reported taking meals regularly. Results showed healthier eating habits in terms of breakfast, vegetables and fruits intake. Female students (56.1%) showed healthier eating habits compared to male students (43.9%) in terms of breakfast intake and daily intake of vegetables (p = 0.043), while male students (52.9%) tend to eat more fruits daily. Nevertheless, the unhealthy eating practice is still common which were indicated by the fact that the students reported eating fried food, snacks, fast food and soft drinks hence associated to overweight and obesity. Contrary to above, females significantly consumed more fried food than males (p = 0.002). Health education programs that promote healthy eating habits and lifestyle for university students should be actively implemented.