StudentKost: a cross-sectional study assessing college students’ diets: reason for concern?

Abstract

College students constitute a significant proportion of the young adult population in Norway. They are in their reproductive years, which is of interest regarding diet and preconception health. Our objective was to assess young college students’ diet and nutrient intake in relation to national dietary recommendations and assess the probability of inadequate micronutrient intake for both genders using the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations, and also to evaluate its consequences on preconception health and create a groundwork for future interventions on this group. At the University of Agder (UiA), we enrolled 622 students aged 18–40 years for a cross-sectional study of student's diet, StudentKost. The students completed a food frequency questionnaire, including questions of supplement use, over the past 4 weeks. Intake of fruits, vegetables, oily fish, and whole grain was lower than recommended, as were mean intake of folate, iron, and iodine. Our main findings are that students have a somewhat suboptimal diet compared to the Norwegian dietary guidelines. Male students had generally lower diet quality than females. Compared to the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (NNR), we also saw a relatively high probability of inadequate intake of several micronutrients and a very high probability for some micronutrients in a significant portion of the sample. Public health effort should be directed towards improving students and young adults’ diet in general, and interventions towards improving preconception health should be explored. The low participation rate limits the generalizability of our findings. Our findings encourage further investigation into young adults’ diet.

Iron Status of Vegans, Vegetarians and Pescatarians in Norway

“…In this study, the reported use of iron supplements was low (9%), of which 12 participants were female vegans and 5 participants were male vegetarians. However, supplement use in our study is similar to the low use of iron supplements reported among female (6% took iron supplements every day) and male (4% did the same) Norwegian students [46]. Low iron supplement use was also reported in the German study among vegan and lacto-ovo vegetarians, with fewer than one-fifth of the participants being iron supplement users [40].…”

Alcohol consumption among students and its relationship with nutritional intake: a cross-sectional study

“…The analyses for this paper are based on dietary data from the cross-sectional survey StudentKost (10) . The overall aim of StudentKost was to assess students' diet in relation to official dietary guidelines.…”

“…Participants had to answer every question to complete the questionnaire, with self-reported height and weight being the only voluntary information. Satisfactory testretest reproducibility and fair relative validity of the FFQ assessed against a 7-day food record have been documented (10) . Median test-retest Spearman's r correlations for energy and nutrients was r = 0•85, ranging from r = 0•56 for vitamin D to r = 0•93 for Ca.…”

Effectiveness of a digital dietary intervention program targeting young adults before parenthood: protocol for the PREPARED randomised controlled trial

“…13 In addition, our recent study of the diet of Norwegian students identified a reason for concern, showing low diet quality compared with recommendations, with a more deficient diet among men than women. 14 Students constitute a large proportion of the preconception population in Norway. Hence, there is an opportunity for being better prepared for one’s health and the health of the next generation.…”

“…National surveys suggest significant opportunities for dietary improvements in the intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts/seeds, fish and milk as well as reduced intake of processed meat and salt among Norwegian young adults 13. In addition, our recent study of the diet of Norwegian students identified a reason for concern, showing low diet quality compared with recommendations, with a more deficient diet among men than women 14. Students constitute a large proportion of the preconception population in Norway.…”