Breakfast Skipping, Anxiety, Exercise, and Soda Consumption are Associated with Diet Quality in Mexican College Students

Abstract

ABSTEACT Despite the reported poor dietary habits and risk of weight gain in college students, they remain understudied in Mexico. Mexican college students are in a rapidly changing economic environment; a shift from a traditional, homemade cuisine to a diet more heavily influenced by an industrialized culture seems to be occurring, potentially affecting the quality of their dietary intake. A health and nutrition survey was conducted among 450 Mexican college students to study the relationship between sociodemographic factors and diet quality. Dietary data were used to build macro- and micronutrient scores, dichotomized as low and normal quality. Adjusted odds (OR [95% CI]) were computed to determine the probability of low dietary quality. Breakfast skipping (5.3 [1.2, 22.7]) and risk of anxiety (2.3 [1.3, 4.4]) were associated with a greater risk of low macronutrient quality, and caloric intake < 1,800 kcal (5.8 [3.5, 9.7]), breakfast skipping (3.7 [1.4, 10.3]), vigorous exercise ≤ 1 h/wk (2.6 [1.3, 5.2]), and soda consumption > 250 mL/d (2.0 [1.2, 3.3]) with low micronutrient quality.

Socioeconomic, demographic and lifestyle-related factors associated with unhealthy diet: a cross-sectional study of university students

“…Regarding lifestyle-related factors, our results show that underweight is associated with lower diet quality compared to normal weight participants. Being overweight and obesity were not associated with diet quality, coinciding with various studies in university population [ 20 , 23 , 24 , 55 ]. This, however, contrast with findings in adult population [ 58 , 60 ].…”

“…However, in student population there is no consensus on whether smoking and doing healthy physical activity are associated with diet quality. In our smoking and physical activity were not associated with unhealthy diet [ 20 , 51 , 52 , 55 ], although one study has shown that physical activity is associated with healthier dietary patterns [ 24 ]. Finally, the present work finds no association between the consumption of harmful substances and diet quality [ 24 ].…”

“…In line with other studies [ 53 , 54 ], our work also reports a greater prevalence of underweight in women and overweight in men. As regards the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, the results reveal that age is not a significant factor in diet quality [ 51 , 55 ], although other studies have found an association [ 23 , 24 ]. It is worth remembering, however, that studies in university populations refer to a small age range and, so, the age variable may have little impact on diet quality.…”

Validation of scale of changes in lifestyles during the quarantine period in a population of university students from Lima, Peru

“…En relación al cigarrillo y alcohol, podemos encontrar un grupo no mayoritario, pero si resistente al cambio, que afirma haber aumentado su consumo; si bien no podemos cuantificar exactamente cuánto es este incremento, llama la atención. Las respuestas a este hallazgo se pueden deber a la necesidad de algunos estudiantes a depender de algunos de estos hábitos para combatir algunos estados como ansiedad, que es altamente prevalente en esta población, como afirman algunos estudios (22,23) . Y para terminar, en cuanto a la actividad física, el aislamiento social no permite que muchos puedan movilizarse como lo hacían con anterioridad eso sumado al sedentarismo encontrado en los estudiantes debido a la falta de tiempo (24)(25)(26) .…”

Qualidade da dieta segundo a autoavaliação de adolescentes: resultados do ISACamp-Nutri

“…A qualitative study showed that adolescents associated healthy eating with having regular meals and, although they considered breakfast to be the most important meal of the day, their omission of this meal was justified by not liking it, not having time or an appetite and waking up too early 20 . A study conducted with university students in Mexico found that skipping breakfast was associated with a low-quality diet in terms of macronutrients and micronutrients 27 .…”