%0 Journal Article
%T Nutritional knowledge, food habits and health attitude of Chinese university students ¨Ca cross sectional study¨C
%A Ruka Sakamaki
%A Kenji Toyama
%A Rie Amamoto
%A Chuan-Jun Liu
%A Naotaka Shinfuku
%J Nutrition Journal
%D 2005
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1475-2891-4-4
%X A self-reported questionnaire was administered to 540 students, ranging in age from 19-24 years. Medical students from Beijing University (135 men and 150 women) in Northern China and Kunming Medical College in southern China (95 men and 160 women) participated in this study. The parametric variables were analyzed using the Student's t-test. Chi-square analyses were conducted for non-parametric variablesOur results showed that 80.5% of students had a normal BMI and 16.6 % of students were underweight with the prevalence of BMI>30 obesity being very low in this study sample. Young Chinese female students had a greater desire to be thinner (62.0%) than males (47.4%). Habits involving regular eating patterns and vegetable intake were reported and represent practices that ought to be encouraged.The university and college arenas represent the final opportunity for the health and nutritional education of a large number of students from the educator's perspective. Our findings suggest the need for strategies designed to improve competence in the area of nutrition.The increasing problem of obesity has been observed in many lower-income countries during the last decades. China has adopted an open-market policy and experienced explosive economic growth, which has led to less food scarcity at the national level and to a remarkable transition in the structure of the diet of Chinese [1]. The composition of the Chinese diet has been shifting towards a diet higher in fat and meat, and lower in carbohydrates and fiber [2]. Additionally, decreased levels of physical activity and leisure are linked to increases in the prevalence of an overweight condition, obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases [3].In previous reports, we examined eating habits and dietary knowledge of female students in Japan. Our results showed that irregular lifestyle was significantly related to indefinite complaint, with the majority of students having a desire to be thinner although the prevalence o
%U http://www.nutritionj.com/content/4/1/4