Research on obesity at university level students and their consumption of dietary products

The research was carried out and planned to find out the obesity matteramong university students and whether or not they use dietary products.400 students were included in the study, 200 of whom received nutritioneducation and the other half did not. Data obtained were analyzed statistically.According to Body Mass Index (BMI) of the students, it was found out that56.5% of them are of medium weight, 34.3% underweight, 7.5% slightly overweightand 1.7% overweight. In terms of waist/thigh rate 4.5% of them were found to beabove limits.It has also been revealed that in order to lose weight and to keep fit, 5.0% ofstudents are always, 36.7% sometimes on a diet. It has also been revealed that thereis a statistically significant relationship among students? dietary situation, their BMIand sex (p<0.01) and in terms of having received nutrition education, there is nostatistically significant relationship (p>0.05).It was found that 74.3% of students do not use dietary products, 19.0%sometimes and 6.7% always use. The relationship between useing dietary productsand BMI is statistically insignificant (p>0.05).Among the mostly used dietary products are respectively a crispunsweetened biscuits, branned bread, cola, branned biscuit, branned bread sticks,kracker types, mineral water and milk.Students expressed that the reason why they use dietary products is to keep fit(34.0%), to lose weight (29.1%) and their taste (19.4%).It has been detected that those who use these products have advantages(16.5%), 55.3% of them have partly advantages. There is no statistically significantrelationship between their views and sex (p>0.05).Among the reasons why they do not use dietary products, students stated thatthey are happy with their weight (49.6%), dietary products are not useful (21.3%)and not delicious (17.1%).It was concluded that students do not have sufficient knowledge about dietaryproducts and either through education or mass communication of media, consumershould be informed about these products.