Dietary habits and exercise practices among the students of a Saudi Teachers' Training College.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the dietary habits and exercise practices among Saudi male students of a Teacher's Training College.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted during the academic year 2005/2006 in Abha, Aseer Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study sample was drawn using the systematic random sampling technique. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection.


RESULTS
Out of a total sample of 500 students, 456 questionnaires were returned giving a response rate of 91.2%. Approximately 10% of the students reported some type of organic disease, while psychiatric disorders were reported by 4.6% of the students. Nearly half of the students had a body mass index of more than 25 kg/m2. Practice of exercise was not prevalent in 14% of the students, while 69.3% were engaged in exercise only twice per month. Half of the students ate lunch and dinner, while snacks after lunch was taken by 76.1% of them. Addition of salt (55.5%), consumption of ghee (91.4%), and watching television while eating (85.3%) was noted among the students. Breakfast was the most commonly missed meal. Approximately 11.4% students did not take vegetable and 28.9% did not take fish at all while softdrinks were consumed by more than 85% of the students ranging from 1-4 times to more than 7 times per week.


CONCLUSIONS
There is an urgent need to assess barriers to the healthy life style and to design an effective intervention program to improve the lifestyle of the future teachers.
Al-Gelban
Khalid S
KS
Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. khalidgelban@hotmail.com
D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003710:Demography; D015444:Exercise; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching; D014495:Universities; D000078329:Workforce