Nutrition Knowledge, Dietary Habits And Prevalence Of Hypertension Among Undergraduate Students In Abia State Polytechnic:- Okoro, Favour I

ABSTRACT

This study assessed the nutrition knowledge, dietary habits and prevalence of hypertension among undergraduates in Abia State Polytechnic, Aba. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a total of 419 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 analyze the data. Data obtained were described using frequency and percentage. Result showed that more than half (53.2%) of the respondents were male who were between 20-23 years (43.0%). Many (64.2%) of the students had a good nutrition knowledge. A little below half (47.5%) of the students eat three times a day and more than half (58.2%) of them skip their meals. Among those that skip meals, 50% of them skip lunch and their major reason for skipping meals was lack of time. Majority (87.8%) of the students prepare their food themselves. The prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension in this study was 13.8% and 5.3% respectively. Prevention and control programmes should be devised among students, to improve their knowledge and lifestyle practices early in life. Also, parents as well as school and health authorities need to work more toward creating awareness about hypertension in young people.