ABSTRACT

Nutritional status is the combination of health as influenced by intake and utilization of nutrients and determined from information obtained by physical, biochemical and dietary studies. The study assessed the correlation between perceived and actual nutritional status of undergraduates in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) and Abia State University, Umuahia Campus (ABSU). The study employed a descriptive and cross sectional in design. The target population of the study included all the 4,080 undergraduate University students of Abia State University, Uturu, and 14, 999 students of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia State. The study employed a multi-staged sampling technique to select 300 students from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) and 131 from Abia State University, Umuahia Campus (ABSU). The data for the study were collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire while the anthropometric data were collected using height and weight measurements. Descriptive statistics of frequency, percentage and mean was used to analyse the socio- demographic characteristics and anthropometric status (BMI, Waist hip rate and Blood pressure level while Pearson correlation was used to determine the relationship between perceived and actual nutritional status. The study found that more than half (59.4%) were males while about 40.0% were females. About 48.0% of the participants were aged between 23-28 years. On perceived nutritional status, Majority (60.8%) believe they have a normal weight status while 41.1% believe they should maintain their current weight based on their perceived body mass. Majority (94.9%) don't know what their blood pressure numbers should be while 29.6% thought their blood pressure was normal. About half (52%) were a little concerned about their blood pressure. On perceived dietary assessment, majority (71.2%) believed their diet was sometimes adequate. More than half (68.2%) always had a diverse variety of food while a majority (59.2%) always had a healthy diet. Actual dietary assessment revealed that majority (96.3%) had a high dietary diversity score. On actual anthropometry, majority (65%) of the participants had a normal weight while less than a quarter of the participants (16.2%) were overweight. Almost half (47.3%) of the participants had a high waist-hip ratio while majority (74.7%) had a normal waist circumference and about 58.9% had normal blood pressure. On the relationship between actual and perceived nutritional status, there was a significant (<0.05) positive correlation between BMI and what describes weight status (r= 0.207, p= 0.000), diagrams that describes BMI (r = 0.241, p =0.000) and what should be done based on perceived body mass (r = 0.208, p= 0.000). The study also showed a significant (<0.05) positive correlation between blood pressure classification and what describes weight status (r =0.153, p=0.001), what should be done based on perceived body mass (r =0.149, p= 0.002) and perceived healthy diet (r =0.152, p= 0.002). The study therefore concludes that there is significant positive correlation between perceived and actual nutritional status of undergraduates. Non-governmental organization and health professionals promote healthy living amongst young adults and adolescents by creating workshops and seminars to create health care awareness amongst young adults and adolescents especially undergraduate.