Nutritional status and related factors in Vietnamese students in 2022

Background and aimsThis work aims to investigate the nutritional status and to find out several related factors among Vietnamese students in 2022.MethodsA descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted on 835 students. Participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire to collect their social-demographic information, as well as information about their height, weight, waist, and hip circumference, eating habits, and physical activity habits. Descriptive statistics and analytical statistics were performed, with P<0.05 as the statistically significant difference.Results99.16% of study subjects were under 21 years old, and the vast majority were female (75.09%). The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 3.23% and 0.72%, respectively, while the figure for both thinness and severe thinness was 27.67%. Most of the students were at a low level of health risk (71.26%), while this figure for high risk of health was 17.37% based on the waist-hip ratio (WHR). The prevalence of moderate and high levels of health risk in females was statistically higher than in males. Self-rated weight, insufficient sleep duration, and physical activity patterns were factors related to both BMI and WHR. Moreover, several types of foods and eating habits also affected BMI among students.ConclusionThe nutritional status and several eating habits as well as activity habits were statistically different between males and females among Vietnamese students. Students' knowledge about nutrition should be elevated to enhance their behavior to their health.