Background: More students are concerned about their body shape and have a desire to have a lower BMI. As a consequence, many of them have disordered eating attitudes (DEAs) and engage themselves in unhealthy weight control behaviors. Aim: To measure the frequency of DEAs among Ain Shams University students and to identify the barriers to healthy eating and physical activity among them. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was done on a sample of 445 students in Ain Shams University from different faculties using a self-reported questionnaire. The weight and height were measured and the BMI was calculated. The eating attitudes were measured using the Eating Attitudes Test-26 questionnaire. Results: The students' age ranged between 17 and 26 years with a mean of 20.3±1.5 years, 40.7% of them were men and 59.3% women. The majority of students (50.8%) had normal BMI, and about 39% were overweight and obese. The frequency of DEAs was 73.3%. There was no significant relation between the presence of DEAs and personal data of students such as age, sex, faculty, and BMI. Lack of time was the most highlighted barrier to both physical activity and healthy eating. Conclusion: There was a high prevalence rate of obesity and DEA that necessitates a lot of efforts to help the youth control their body weights and correct unhealthy behaviors by overcoming barriers against healthy behaviors.

Background: More students are concerned about their body shape and have a desire to have a lower BMI. As a consequence, many of them have disordered eating attitudes (DEAs) and engage themselves in unhealthy weight control behaviors. Aim: To measure the frequency of DEAs among Ain Shams University students and to identify the barriers to healthy eating and physical activity among them. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was done on a sample of 445 students in Ain Shams University from different faculties using a self-reported questionnaire. The weight and height were measured and the BMI was calculated. The eating attitudes were measured using the Eating Attitudes Test-26 questionnaire. Results: The students' age ranged between 17 and 26 years with a mean of 20.3±1.5 years, 40.7% of them were men and 59.3% women. The majority of students (50.8%) had normal BMI, and about 39% were overweight and obese. The frequency of DEAs was 73.3%. There was no significant relation between the presence of DEAs and personal data of students such as age, sex, faculty, and BMI. Lack of time was the most highlighted barrier to both physical activity and healthy eating. Conclusion: There was a high prevalence rate of obesity and DEA that necessitates a lot of efforts to help the youth control their body weights and correct unhealthy behaviors by overcoming barriers against healthy behaviors.

Background: Food safety at hospitals is of significant importance for the recovery and wellbeing of patients. Reasons beyond unsafe food at hospitals may be related to consumption of food contaminated with microorganisms or their toxins, which may result from unsafe sources, inadequate cooking or unhygienic practices during food preparation, handling and storage. Objectives: to identify the baseline knowledge and food handling practices of food safety among the food handlers in Ain Shams University Hospitals (ASU), and to develop a health education program about food safety for the food handlers and assess its outcome in ASU Hospitals. Method: one arm intervention study was carried out at the kitchens of ASU hospitals.  All food handlers (n=75) in ASU hospital kitchens were recruited in this study. The study was carried out in three phases, the first phase was evaluation of baseline knowledge and practices of participants using self-administered questionnaire and on site observation checklist (Pre-intervention phase), the second phase was health education program for food handlers (Intervention phase) which included several activities such as power point lecture, demonstration, playing video, interactive discussion and distribution of brochures.