Dietary behaviors and their influencing factors among college students in Qinghai province

Objective To examine dietary behaviors and their influencing factors among college students in Qinghai province for the improvement of the students' dietary behavior.Methods With a self-designed questionnaire,1 452 college students from three universities were surveyed anonymously.Results The prevalence rate of eating snacks,eating sweets,eating roadside stalls,food preference,irregular meals,and not taking breakfast were 71.8%,52.3%,44.8%,43.0%,34.6%,and 13.9%,respectively.There were significant differences in poor dietary behaviors among the students of different gender,grades,majors,schools,and nationality.Factors influencing health status of the students included type of the college,gender and body mass index.Conclusion Overall level of poor dietary hebavior is high in college students in Qinghai province and unhealthy dietary behavior is an important problem in the students,suggesting health education should be strengthened to improve health consciousness in the students.