Abstract:

Background: University students are potentially a group of vulnerable in relation to their nutritional abnormalities due to lifestyle changes brought by income in college, greater independence when selecting foods to consume, the number of feedings throughout the day, increase the number of hours sitting in classrooms, also low adherence to Mediterranean diet among university students, and shifting from Mediterranean diet to fast food diet. This study is going to determine the prevalence and associated factors of weight and blood glucose abnormalities among university students at CUHAS.

Methodology: This was a school cross sectional study that was conducted at Catholic University of Health and Allied Science (CUHAS) in Mwanza city from December 2021 to February 2022. Random sampling was used to recruit three hundred and forty-five university students were included in the study. Social – demographic data and other information was obtained by using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire, Anthropometrics (weight and height) and blood sugar was measured accordingly. The students were 129(33%) males and 216 (67%) females in the age range of 18 – 33 years (M age 22 years, SD = 2.4).

Results: 35.9% had weight abnormalities, 26.7% overweight (≥25-29.9 kg/m2 and 4.9% obese (≥30 kg/m2), 4.3% underweight (<18.5 kg/m2) and 43% of 243 had abnormal blood sugar, 41.3% prediabetic range, 1.7% had diabetic range blood sugar. Risk factors that were statistically significant weight abnormalities with sex, p-value=,000), socioeconomic background of the students-value=,000) less eating fruits-value=,002) red meat eating, p-value=,000) eating fried food-value=,003) breakfast frequency taking-value=,000) Eating frequency-value=,000) Caffeinated drink, p-value=,026) and sedentary behavior-value=,029) Current Depressive episodes, p-value=,000) and past depressive episodes, p-value=,010) Blood sugar abnormalities was associated with emotional bond with at least one person-value=,009) eating fruits, p-value=,009) fried food eating-value=,043 and stressful events, p-value=,044) Association between BMI and RBG, this study found that there is positive weak correlation but not statistical significance. (r=+0.048, n=345 and p-value<0.05)

Conclusion: The study found a high prevalence of weight and blood sugar abnormalities especially overweight and prediabetic respectively. Several health risk practices were identified including lack of dietary risk knowledge, mental health, sedentary behaviors or use of caffeinated drinks, lack of social support (socio-economic background) that can be utilized in health promotion programs.