Differences in dietary and life habits among medical and non-medical faculties in Novi Sad

During the study period, inadequate nutritional habits such as skipping of breakfasts, insufficient consumption of fruit, vegetables and dairy products and excessive fast-food consumption may develop. Understanding undesirable dietary patterns in adolescents is one of the measures in prevention of many diseases. The aim of this study was to estimate differences in dietary habits among students from medical and non-medical faculties at Universities in Novi Sad. The research was conducted in May 2018 and included 514 students aged from 19 to 24 (133 males and 381 females) from 4 faculties (Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy, Faculty of Sciences and Faculty of Technology) whose study programs contain nutritional items. The original anonymous questionnaire was used. Statistical processing was done in SPSS20. Results showed that 50% of students have 3 meals and only 10% have all 5 meals during the day. Student from Technology faculty in the large percentage (12%) constantly eat during the day in comparison with other faculties (4-5%). One half of students have breakfast every day, while a little less than 5% never has breakfast. Regarding the food types, only 5% of the participants consumed vegetables and only 6% of them consumed fruits more than once a day with statistical significance between faculties (p < 0.01). At the same time, 92% of participants consumed meat a few times a week and 77% of participants consumed fish at least once a week. Water consumption higher than 2 l daily was reported by only one third of the students (faculty differences were statistically significant p < 0.05) although 85% of participants reported water as their first choice of drinks. Results indicate presence of differences in dietary habits among students from different faculties. The necessity of education should be directly focused on increasing proper nutrition habits among students especially in study programs which contain nutritional items.