Lifestyle and Dietary Habits Among Private College Students: A Cross-Sectional Study in Iraq

Abstract Background: Students’ lifestyles and eating habits can be disturbed due to their busy work schedule. Objectives: This study is aimed to assess the prevalence of healthy habits among students from the private colleges of pharmacy and Physical Education Sport Sciences in Iraq. Materials and Methods: A total of 358 students of Al-Mustaqbal University in Babylon province, Iraq were participated in this cross-sectional study. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a predesigned questionnaire, which includes questions on the student’s sociodemographic information, weight status, meal habits, smoking status, alcohol use, fried food consumption, and overall fruits and vegetables intake. The Statistical Program for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to determine descriptive statistics. Results: Students’ body mass index (BMI) revealed that 2.9% of male students were underweight, 51.2% were normal, and 37.3% were overweight, whereas 6.4% of female students were underweight, 64% were normal, and 26.4% were overweight. Eating irregularly was highly reported between females and males ( P < 0.001). More students in sports science eat breakfast daily compared with students in pharmacy. Of the total sample, 37.1% and 44.4% of students reported regularly snacking and consuming fried food, respectively. Female student smoking was reported ( P < 0.001). Students reported rarely drinking alcohol. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicated that students attending private college had lifestyle behaviors that range from healthy to unhealthy. These behaviors were potentially affected by gender and college type.