Assessing risk factors that can cause alimentary-dependent diseases among students due to their nutrition

Abstract

This research can be considered quite vital due to digestive organs diseases being widely spread among young students. We chose students attending I.M. Sechenov’s First Moscow State Medical University as our research object. We questioned 840 students who attended the above-mentioned higher education establishment and assessed their medical check-ups data; having done that, we analyzed risks of alimentary-dependent diseases among students related to impacts exerted by their nutrition. Our research goal was to assess students’ nutrition, its structure, frequency, and conditions; to determine priority risk factors for students’ health; and to develop recommendations on healthy nutrition provided for them as a factor related to pursuing healthy lifestyle. We detected that about 20 % students didn’t have breakfast; about 8 % didn’t have lunch or dinner (and it meant they had less than 3 meals a day; however, half of the students had 3 meals a day. 65.7 % of the students had their last meal a day after 9 p.m., and about 20 %, after 23 (late meal). We ranked a correlation between nutrition-related risk factors and existing nosologies and revealed that 3 factors exerted the most significant influence on the digestive organs diseases; they were late meals, irregular hot meals, and a number of meals taken a day. Endocrine system diseases were mostly influenced by 2 factors, late meals and a number of meals a day. Number of meals a day was also correlated to respiratory organs diseases and urogenital system diseases; late meals, to diseases in the nervous and cardiovascular systems.

Keywords

• risk assessment
• students
• number of meals a day
• nutrition regime
• late meals
• meal
• morbidity
• health preservation
• healthy lifestyle
• prevention