Dietary pattern amongst Medical college students, Delhi

Background: India is experiencing a transitional shift with more of new cases of Non Communicable Disease observed specially in young adults. One of the major reasons of this upsurge is faulty dietary habits, resulting in overweight and obesity and further rise in NCDs. The purpose of this study is to assess eating habits and nutritional risk factors for NCDs in a medical student of Medical college of Delhi. Methods: After explaining the purpose of the study in individual classroom explained questionnaire was mailed to all 300 medical college undergraduate students currently studying in this medical college. The form consists of questions on sociodemographic details including information about weights, height and eating habits including, drinking and smoking habits. Results: Filled forms were returned by 220 students out of which 204 were found to be complete and were considered for further analysis. Of total 204 students, 72 (35.3%) were females and 132 (64.7%) were males in our study. Regarding meals only 154 (75.5%) were found to be taking meals regularly i.e. more than 3 times a day and 82.4% (168) were having breakfast on regularly basis. Daily consumption of vegetable and legumes against recommended two times were found only in 41.2 (84) students, similarly daily fruit consumption against recommended two times was found only in 30.4% (62) students only. However fast-food consumption on daily basis was as high as 23.5% (48).Smoking was absent in students and alcohol intake was present in 3% of males (06) and reportedly absent in females. About 22.5% (46) was reported of doing some sort of exercise in a week but only 20 (9.8 %) were found to be doing exercise on daily basis. 156 (76.5%) sought some sort of information  regarding balanced diet and 120 (58.8%) had reported to have adequate information about balance diet. Conclusion: Eating habits were found to be irregular among undergraduate medical students with regard to meals and daily intake of fruits and vegetables was found to be less than recommended norms. More efforts are required for improving eating practices of the students and also for adequate nutrition and its implication on health. Keywords: Eating Practices, MBBS students, Balanced diet, Junk food, Regular meals, Non comunicable diseases.