Health-Related Lifestyle Among College-Going Youth in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

ABSTRACT

Introduction Youth is a period where a number of healthy and unhealthy habits get acquired that last throughout a person's life. Youth health promotion has become a key study focus around the world. Thus this study is undertaken to understand health-related lifestyles affecting college-going youth. Methods A cross-sectional survey was done in the junior colleges in Bhubaneswar, India, which included college-going youth. The sample size was 636. The sampling technique was a two-stage stratified sampling method. Firstly, one college was selected from each of five administrative regions (east, west, north, south, and central zone) in Bhubaneswar randomly by lottery method to provide a representative sample. From each college, 128 students were selected randomly from the list of students. Results In this study, 237 (37.3%) of the participants ate green leafy vegetables on a daily basis, with 39.3% of females and just 31.2% of males. This difference in preference of green leafy vegetables among males and females was found to be statistically significant with a p-value of 0.019. Out of 180 (28.3%) of the participants who consumed milk products daily, 25% were females, while 38.1% were males (p-value of 0.004). In the present study, out of 247 (38.8%) participants who preferred eating fast food, 37.6% were females, while 42.5% were males. Out of 213 (33.5%) of them who preferred sweets (candy/chocolate), 37.2% were females, while only 22.5% were males. This difference in gender in regards to junk food preference was found to be statistically significant with a p-value of 0.001. In the current study, out of 243 (42%) of the participants who spent 30 minutes to one hour on exercise per day, 43.4% were females, while 37.4% were males. Out of 133 (23%) of them who spent one to two hours on exercise per day, 23.6% were females, while only 20.9% were males (p-value of 0.003). Out of 208 (35.9%) of the participants who preferred walking as the main mode of exercise, 40.2% were females, while 22.3% were males (p-value <0.0001). Conclusion The main findings of this study demonstrated that the majority of the youth followed proper meal routines and engaged in regular physical exercise. However, when compared to junk food consumption, participants consumed far fewer green leafy vegetables. This would prove to be harmful to their health. Since the youth of today are the future of tomorrow, they should be provided with proper health education regarding the harmful effects of regular intake of junk food.