Abstract
Eating habits at the fast food joints by the university students was assessed, and conclusions were made on the same. The aim of carrying out this research is to determine and learn the changes related to eating behavior of students in tertiary education colleges. The motivation statement under abstract is to determine how college students are affected directly or indirectly by their eating habits. To determine the result, students in different departments were interviewed and asked to fill in open or close- ended questionnaires. After conducting the study, various findings were reached. Through the student’s poor eating habits, the majority have developed health-related complications and illnesses. These include obesity, heart associated diseases and high blood pressure. However, there are various factors that posed a challenge to the team since some of the participants did not go through the entire process.
KEYWORDS
INTRODUCTION
Unhealthy lifestyle choices that are made by the university aged student, are what affects their health and wellbeing. This therefore results to the influence of a certain culture among the college students. These students who are uninformed, formulate inaccurate notions regarding health, lifestyle, physical fitness and non -recommended weight loss methods. The lifestyle of these college students is influenced by a number of factors. The factors affecting their choices are, among others, limited variety of foods, costs, skipping meals, snacking and taking junk foods that lead to gaining weight while pursuing their education at the college or university (Sherryl,. et al. 2014).
There is need to educate the college students on the implications of their choices, as this might influence their health behavior later. Despite the health promotion and illness prevention campaigns, the college student continue to engage in high rates of unhealthy behaviors. These among others include those that are associated with a range of lifestyle chronic diseases .
When the students join tertiary institutions referred to as campuses, they get full control of their dieting selections. As a result of the life stage, the students may not put into consideration the lifelong conditions paths that they are setting themselves to be.
The institutions tend to have food joints that sell already prepared meals, takeaways. This surrounding affects their choices thus reduced food acquisition and preparation techniques. Besides the dietary mannerism, physical activities and lack of general engagement tend to diminish among the students who may be as a result of such a more sedentary lifestyle especially when having exams and learning. Therefore, increased cases of obesity or overweight issues have of late gone beyond control among the youths in the tertiary institutions (Von Ah, et al, 2004).
The aim of this research is to audit the best and convenient proof, concerning the impact of health behavior intervention so that physical activities can be enhanced. The mode of eating routine and weight outcomes influences the new students enrolling in colleges and universities. To determine the attitude of the learners regarding the usual dietary performance and health will be of great significance to the study.
Some of the factors that affect the student dietary plans are an inclusive variation of dietetic patterns and nutrient intake. The changes in the diet, which takes place in the first year of the student at the institution is the period that they are transitioning into young adults from adolescence. The variation could also be prompted by the buffet- style of serving. The quality of their diet differs during this stage of campus life. Thus, they do not meet the suggested diet strategies. Their meals are rich in the fat, sugars, and salt and in most cases lacking vegetable, fruit and dairy ingestion which are essential for proper body growth and development. Furthermore, they skip meals to lose weight but indulge in eating a lot of snacks which are processed. (Plotnikoff, et al., 2015).
Another factor is the food group consumption. Individuals, whether they are young or old should have at least nine serving of fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, college students only have between 2.1 to 5.5 serving of the same. Also, an implication of the eating behavior of the college learners has an impact on them. They do not consume their meals as the nutritional plan recommends. A survey conducted showed that their eating habits do not reflect in the betterment of their educational career. The weight gains among the students are usually noticed when they have completed their studies. The practices they adopted are often continued to adulthood with no positive changes made thus, their health, as well as future family health, is not jeopardized. They make poor food choices, lack physical activity in their schedules, and eating canned or already processed foods.
The students can gain additional weight while learning due to environmental factors. Occupational change and behavioral change contribute to adding mass, residency and diet restriction, joining the tertiary education level, encouraging taste inclinations, limited perceived time obstacles scheduled for eating and greater home access of fruits and vegetables (Fathieh & Farihan, 2010).
Problem Identification
The invention programs that the students may adopt are traditional nutritive interventions, online nutrition program, and nutritious alternative program. These programs are usually put in place by all the learning institutions. The administration of the universities is also responsible for funding the projects while ensuring the procedure is a success . In the previous generation, programs that yielded results were influenced by personal experience with listed dieticians or health care professionals. The method does not fit into the busy schedule of the students, thus some of the institutions introducing nutrition and courses to manage the rising cases of obesity and overweight among the student population. Unfortunately, the method only had the students having more knowledge on dietary but do not have an effect on the actual food consumption proportions that would constitute health diets (Ha, et al, 2009).
Also, a course that will encourage the ingestion of whole grains while teaching on the health hazards is both costs efficiency for the board management of the tertiary institution while interactive at the same time. Therefore, the students manage their body mass index while their nutritive knowledge is expanded. Hence, the result is assisting those at the risk of adding significant weight as opposed to those that have no weight-related issues. The impact of this issue is increased vegetable and fruit intake among the students in the tertiary level of educational, thus, encouraging healthy lifestyles for them and their future families (Ha, et al, 2009).
Technology advancement has influenced how edification is dispatched, and knowledge is granted. Students who identify internet learning as an assimilated skill had optimistic learning aftermaths while those that had complications with virtual learning had less success and efficiency levels. Therefore, the learner’s perception is a crucial element of the impact of online learning will be instilled. Online exploration and learning have more cost savings suitability. On the contrary, face to face intermediation and online intervention displays no difference in association to their effectiveness. Hence, online courses come in handy when preventing detrimental behavior for the students in colleges and universities. The benefit of online educational studies and research is the aptitude to bond with personalities which are reluctant to be productive to person due to the subtle nature of the package. It is the best approach to use for qualitative health linked factors where the participants have low self-esteem in a face to face research methods. The respondents are vibrant in an online survey as they are more involved in both monitoring and feedback responses. Henceforth, for the weight pain arbitration programs among college students to be efficient, highly designed structures and multiple components need to be included. The success can be associated with the motivation the students get when various people participate leading them to change their fruit and vegetable consumption rates (Jones M, et al. 2014).
Solutions
Nutrition tutoring and weight increase deterrence programs can be conveyed via online programs separate from the out-dated internet portico allied with educational establishments. Social networks can be employed to alter communal norms interrelated to plumpness and may have special effects on weight loss. With the incorporation of Facebook and messaging into students’ day-to-day lives, there is now a limitless capability to distribute nutrition evidence through avenues that are regularly used. This is a truncated cost and appropriate podium for the institution of higher education to use. Facebook, as well as other social media platforms, is excellent for providing information on weight loss and perception change of weight behaviors on a vast and cost-efficient scale. Amalgamation of text messaging and Facebook to publicizing inspiration and prompts was deemed to be effective. Social media alone might not have successful results as it could have been thought (Deliens, et al. 2014).
Workshops can also be held to upsurge the apprentice ability and self-worth for turning out to be or persisting to be healthy during the shift from high schools to universities. It is crucial to establish policies and strategies that will prevent adding weight as they change their normal living environments. Exercise as well as eating balanced diet meals a practical innovation to ensure that the onset of obesity is kept at bay. The students need professionals that will convey the nutritive information, content different from the adult generation. It should be made to seem like a fun idea that they can eventually have great comfort in, unlike a condition where they lack an alternative method. In doing so, healthy lifestyles will be encouraged among them, hence ingesting more fruits and vegetables in their daily meal plans (Deliens, et al. 2014)
Outcomes
The research deliberated on the following results gauge distinctively to the fitness of its goals. This is because the review showed that information was not all that was intended to change to habits of any persons. Some of the consequences, foreseen are:
Physical exercise such as walking a couple of steps and vigorous exercise over an extended period of time will result in fitness. Moreover, muscular strength, flexibility and developing endurance in hardship situations. Post evaluation questionnaires were used to determine the changes that occurred during the program (Fussman, et al. 2014).
Nutrition aftermaths: energy aperture, waist circumference, and body mass index. The participants received additional information, tips on nutrition. They were asked to record their activities and hand them in at the end of every week. They accessed the content the videos and literature articles at their will and convenience. Those who managed to complete the exercise were rewarded with incentives to motivate them to continue with the journey on the nutrition they had embarked on.
In this research several techniques were used to retrieve the information to be utilized in the compilation of the research findings. The scopes used by the scholars consist of the nation of origin, actual sample and size, the time span of the case study, the mean age of the participants, interview description, health behavior, contributor retention, research strategy, results, outcomes and implication of the results. It was then assessed regarding its reliability and precision (Jones M, et al. 2014).
Studies aiming the signs of progress in students’ health led to physical action, weight loss and dietetic disorders in tertiary level of education. Study individualities and perils of bias notches were summarized. Research schemes included a non- randomized controlled trial, randomized controlled trial and pre-post designed with no regulator crowds. The study durations varied in time spans of the one on one invention talks to interviews. Nutrition, weight loss, and physical activity were also the focal points of emphasis. The participants ranged from both men and female students. In conclusion, the demographic age of the respondents was not exclusively included (Plotnikoff, et al., 2015).
Treatment
Physical Activity and the Fitness Outcomes
The risk of bias classification was neutral when physical activity and other health mannerisms were combined. Significant improvements were reported in the pre-interventions and post interventions using the physical activity analysis. The period spent doing physical exercise increased as well the metabolic task equivalence thus the physical activity inclination opinion poll scores improved (JD W., 2010)
Total Physical Activity
Logical investigations that compared interferences affecting well-being shows a controlled setting that ascertained general movement stemmed to a control express that aged all the physical racket level at after mediation were pooled in a meta-examination. The studies included numerous intervention supports and control assembly. Consequently, response contrasted with comparisons was incorporated. The studies considerably heterogeneous established no major variance in the entire physical activity amid control groups and intervention at post intervention (JD W., 2010).
Vigorous Physical Activity
Research comparing intercession leveling wellbeing behavior to a control state, surveyed dynamic physical movement intensities at post-mediation were in an aggregate meta-examination. They included compound intercession underpins and individual control set, thus, medications, as well as appeared differences about control comparisons, were included in the examination. They were, for the most part, heterogeneous with no standing change in enthusiastic physical goings-on levels amongst intercession and control squads at post-mediation (JD W., 2010).
Moderate Physical Activity
Investigations matching interventions aimed at health manners to a regulated state that measured unassuming physical movement levels at post impedances were pooled in the meta-examination. Much the same as the past structures, it included various intercession arms and a single control group. Therefore, the control group and interventions were compared and added to the analysis. It was a similar study depicting typical physical action primarily lies in the control bunch when contrasted with the intercession group in the after mediation tests. (JD W., 2010) Reports stated that there was a significant increase in the volume of fruits and vegetables consumed. The moderate risk of bias was in a neutral state in some samples while in others it was either a negative reading or active reading. Therefore, interventions were shown to have had positive advance effects on the healthy dietary habits of the students. The vegetable and fruit ingestion increased while a noticeable decrease in fat, sodium and concentrated sugars was reported. Also, consumption of whole grain products increased (Deliens, et al. 2014) After observing the nutrition guides, the waist to hip ratio decreased while the rate of bias was neutral in some cases. The body mass index and weight loss were also noted in the reports. On the hand, the proportion of participants joining the sample group to shed off excess weight increased. (Sherryl, et al. 2014)
In conclusion, a good nutrition program for students in colleges is a major concern, and a new program should be implemented to enhance healthy life during the learning period. This will reduce the cost of medications and health risks to students. To achieve good health behavior in colleges and universities, emphasis are to be laid down and awareness created for students. Thus, nurses in health centres in colleges and universities should establish strategies for upgrading self-efficacy and decreasing obstructions to embracing a solid way of life in future wellbeing advancement programs.
References
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