Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and Some Anthropometric Measurements of University Students

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this research was to determine adherence in Mediterranean diet (AMD) and its components and some anthropometric measurements of university students. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 510 university students in December, 2019. AMD was evaluated by the Mediterranean Diet Quality Index (KIDMED) questionnaire. Results: The median age of the students was 21(2) years and the majority of them (60.2 %) were women. The mean score on the ‘KIDMED’ was 4.0±2.6 among the whole group. The AMD was poor in 37.3 %, medium in 53.3 % and high in 9.4 % of the students. There was no statistically significant differences according to KIDMED groups between gender, age groups, place of residence, waist circumference (WC), waist/hip ratio (WHR) (p>0.05). Between BMI and KIDMED groups a significant difference was found (p<0.05). Overweight and Obese (OWB) students consumed fruit twice a day more frequently than normal weight (NW) students (p <0.05). OWB consumed less cereals or grains (bread, etc.) for breakfast than NW (p<0.05). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, AMD were found to be related with BMI value. In addition, KIDMED items differ according to gender and BMI values.