Abstract

Inculcation of right dietary practices today has become a important part of lifestyle.A medical student develops a change in the behavioral attitude during his transition from high school to medical college. Assessing and maintaining write dietary practices will definitely help to build a good foundation as a future doctor.
Objective:Assessment of Dietary habits and Nutritional Status of Undergraduate Medical Students.
Methodology :
This is Cross-sectional study carried out on the undergraduate medical students of a Government Medical College. Total of 500 students from IInd ,IIIrd and Final year MBBS Batch were selected. Information on dietary habits was retrieved through a questionnaire given to the student. Anthropometric measurement was taken with tools. Dietary profile was taken by 24 hrs dietary recall method.
Results:
Out of 500 students 482 students were available for data collection , 64% were females and 36% were males. About 26% of Boys and 16% of girls were found to be Pre-Obese. About 13 % of the girls were found to be Underweight. Consumption of fruits and Vegetables on a daily basis was high among female students with p- value <0.05. The students showed a pertinent  psychological behavior with respect to food habits such as overeating when lonely, having junk food when having long screen time, and eating till the stomach is full showed statistically significant change (p<0.001).  The prevalence of Gastro-Intestinal symptoms was found high among girls which was statistically significant (p<0.05). About 86% of the boys and 79% of the Girls showed Calorie intake below the recommended level.
Concluion: The Study show mixed results with some adverse dietary habits and food psychology among the medical students