NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND EATING BEHAVIOUR AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Significance. Malnutrition manifesting in different forms as underweight, overweight and obesity is the main public health issue in the world, particularly in young individuals. The purpose of study is to provide an up-to-date summary on prevalence and associated risk factors of nutritional status and eating behaviour among university students. Material and Methods. Preferred reporting elements for systematic reviews and meta-analyses were applied to PubMed, Google scholar, direct Google search, Yandex search, eLIBRARY.RU and Cochrane library databases for studies on prevalence and associated risk factors of nutritional status and eating behaviour among university students. Major findings that raise concerns included prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity and associated factors. Papers in English and Russian were selected as eligible for systematic review. A qualitative synthesis of the selected studies was performed. Results. After a selection procedure, this systematic review included a total of 19 studies with 13,817 study subjects to assess major findings of interest. Accordingly, the reported rate of underweight, overweight and obesity widely varied across the included studies. Thus, most often studies reported underweight (2.5-54%); overweight was indicated in 7.2%-29.5% of studies; while obesity – in 14.9% of the analyzed studies. The crude prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity equaled to 15.2%, 17% and 4.2%, respectively. A total of 22 associated risk factors of nutritional status and eating behaviour were identified by individual studies. Conclusion. A double burden of malnutrition among university students was high and affected by several factors. Therefore, future studies should specify country-specific associated risk factors of nutritional status, eating behaviour and lifestyle of university students. Scope of application. University management at all levels, university development programs