Knowledge, Attitudes and Food Practices of Students of the University of Dschang, West Cameroon

Résumé

This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study carried out on a random sample of
students, during Open Days in 2016. The knowledge, attitudes and practices of
students on food were assessed using a structured questionnaire; the weight status
evaluated using the body mass index classification of the World Health
Organization (2006), the diet by the 24h recall method. Epi Infos 7.2.1.0 was used
for data analysis, the confidence interval used 95%, P-value <5%. The study
describes the weight status, knowledge, attitudes and eating habits of students at
the University of Dschang in Cameroon. Out of 292 participants, the knowledge of
the students, it emerges that eating is an essential act for: survival (58.86%) and
health (26.88%); meanwhile 73.19% know that a diet must be varied. The first
source of information on nutrition was school (30.04%) and 60.22% considered
themselves to be well informed. According to 41.43%, cooking one’s food enables
healthy feeding and 51.25%rated themselves as eating balance. 65.41% practiced
diversified diet against 34.59%. Regarding weight status, 64.73% normal; 28.77%
overweight; 5.14% obesity and 0.34% morbid obesity. The study found limited
access to information on diet and high proportions of overweight and obesity
among students. We recommend the implementation of a healthy eating promotion
program at the Dschang University Center.

Mots-clés

Cameroon, Knowledge-attitudes-practices, Nutrition, Obesity, Weight status

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