Hydration Assessment Among Foreign University Students

Background: Adequate food intake and adequate water intake (AWI) plays a vital role in body development, human health and total wellbeing. Water intake (WI) is one of the major and crucial nutrients for health promotion and disease prevention. Beverage consumption is also a medium through which water is consumed but the content of the beverage is very important to staying hydrated and living healthy. Despite this, there is a viaduct in proper knowledge about the exact amount of total water intake (TWI) and hydration status among students in Obuda University. Aim: The primary aim of this study is to bring an awareness among Obuda University students about how important water is to health and staying hydrated which further enhance a good study performance. To check if the students suffer from any dehydration-related symptoms and to conduct descriptive analysis on which channels they acquire information about hydration. Therefore, we focus on water drinking habits by investigating if Obuda University students from Africa, Asia and Europe adheres to hydration policy as regards to the recommended daily total water intake (TWI) according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for Europeans and the World Health Organization (WHO) for Africans and Asians, and to explore if they are well hydrated. Methods: A cross-platform survey was distributed to extort data about drinking habits and the awareness of hydration among the students. The questions contained in the survey took approximately 5 minutes to complete. There were 385 responses but 323 were qualified for the investigation. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS v26 and descriptive statistics are presented throughout the study. Results: There were 323 young-aged participants between the ages of 18-35 years from Africa, Asia, and Europe included in the study. Between 10%-22% of the population were aware of the TWI by both EFSA and WHO which induce that many among the student population are suffering from dehydration symptoms. Nevertheless, water was the most preferred beverage among the students when thirsty (83.3% prefer to drink water when thirsty) but they still do not consume enough as recommended. However, only 35.0% and 33.7% of the students could correctly indicate the daily TWI recommended by EFSA and WHO for both male and female respectively. Our study also revealed that the symptoms of dehydration is more severe in the students between the ages of 25-35 years than in students between ages 18-24 years. Conclusion: Our study revealed that 99.7% of the students agreed with the fact that water is an essential factor for staying hydrated and living healthy, but they do not have the knowledge of the adequate amount of water required to keep the body functioning optimally. Therefore, it is recommended that they should be educated about the proper means of retrieving information about hydration and have a full knowledge of the sources of dietary water intake in order to avoid overhydration. In this study, dehydration has also been confirmed to affect the cognitive performance of the students during summer time; 42.1 % of the students are below average, 30.0% are on the average and 27.9% are above average based on their academic performance. While during winter; 18.9% of the students are below average, 38.1 % are on the average and 43.0% are above average based on their academic performance.