EJMS

Abstract

During the last few decades, Egypt experienced rapid socio-cultural changes that were associated with major changes in the food consumption, eating habits, daily physical activities, and response to social stress. Life style plays an important role in the youth development. Objectives: Were to determine the pattern of life style among medical students in Damietta Faculty of Medicine. Methods: A cross sectional survey study was conducted on the students of the first and second stage of faculty of medicine i.e. first 3 grades. The study included 475 students during the academic year 2012-2013. Data collection was performed by a self-administrated questionnaire. Also, some anthropometric measurements were taken. Results: The results yielded that out of 475 students, 289 (60.8%) were males, their mean ages was 19.7±0.9 years, and the mean BMI was 23.66±3.64. The calculated BMI indicated that majority (59.8%) of the students had normal weight. Overweight and obese students were 24.8% and 7.2%, respectively compared to 8.2% underweight students. Food consumptions, dietary habits, response to stress, and the overall score were significantly higher among normal weight students. While, physical activities were significantly higher among underweight students (P < 0.03). Also, 175 (36.8%) of the students were estimated practicing average life style, 300 (63.2%) were estimated practicing positive life style, and none of them was practicing negative life style. Conclusion: The majority of our students had positive and healthy life style. However, still there is much room for improvement by increasing physical activities and encouraging healthier diets thereby reducing their future risk of chronic diseases.