ABSTRACT

This study assessed the nutrition knowledge, dietary habits and prevalence of hypertension among undergraduates in Abia State College of Health Science and Management Technology, Aba. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a total of 336 undergraduate students. Data on socio demographic characteristics of the students, nutrition knowledge and dietary habits of the students were collected using structured and validated questionnaire. The IBM SPSS version 22.0 computer programme was used to analyse the data. Data obtained were described using frequency and percentage. The result showed that more than half (53.9%) of the respondents were females and Majority (92.6%) were Christians. More than half of them lived off-campus and majority (90.2%) were single. More than half (67.6%) of the respondents receive a monthly allowance above N 10,000. More than half (58.9%) of them had an average nutritional knowledge and some (34.5%) had a good nutritional knowledge. A little below half (48.8%) eat less than three times a day. While, more than half of them (69.3%) of them skipped their meals and the meal mostly skipped were lunch (51.5%) and breakfast (47.2%). Their reasons for skipping meals were lack of time (58.4%) and non-availability of food (19.3%). Their food frequency showed that the respondents consumed more cereals, roots and tubers 3-4 times in a week and legumes, fruits, meats, nuts and snacks were mostly consumed 1-2 times weekly. Beverages were however mostly consumed daily. The prevalence of hypertension among the respondents was 4.2%. Nutrition education is imminent for University students to gain appropriate knowledge about nutrition and periodic screening of blood pressure is important. Appropriate nutrition education programs be developed and added to the curriculum to improve the nutrition knowledge, dietary habits and overall health status of university students.