College Student Risk Essay
The article, “Risk Factors Associated with Overweight and Obese College Student”, the authors Melissa N. Desai, William C. Miller, Betty Staples and Terrill Bravender conducted a study on how food plays a role in college students life along with being physically inactive. An extensive survey was sent through email to three campuses in North Carolina. This email was sent to all undergraduates with the exception of some because of internet difficulties not all the students received the email. The total resulted in 4,201 undergraduate students who received the email. This study used the Eating Attitudes Test 26 (EAT 26) questionnaire that asked multiple questions even though it was normally used to diagnose eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia nervosa (Desai, Miller, Staples, & Bravender, 2008).
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From a score of zero (never) to six (always) these responses explain how food plays a role in their life, whether they feel like food controls their life or if they have an eating disorder along with each student’s Body Mass Index (BMI).
In this study, 78.5 percent were considered normal weight and 16.5 percent were overweight or obese. Even though there was more normal weight than overweight students in this particular study, that is not the case for every college. Overweight students were more likely to report complete physical inactivity, binge eating, dieting and a desire to be thinner compared to their classmates of normal weight. Instead of eating healthier, college students chose to diet and not change their physical activity which does not work nor is healthy. The authors suggest that when educating college students, they should receive psychological help as well because it is a difficult process to make health changes (Desai, Miller, Staples, & Bravender,
2008)
The article, “Relationship of Eating Competence, Sleep Behaviors, Quality, and Overweight Status Among College Students” by Virginia Quick, Suzanne Shoff, Barbara Lohse, Adrienne White, Tanya Horacek, and Geoffrey Greene compared the amount of sleep to competent eating and how it affects one’s health. The questionnaire was sent out to eight universities in different areas of the country to students ages 18-24 not majoring in Health and Human Services which resulted in 1035 student participants. After the questionnaire, students were asked if they were getting the recommended seven hours of sleep or if they had trouble sleeping. They were followed up for a physical assessment, where they obtained their students BMI results. The results showed that those who slept better made healthier food choices as opposed to those who did not get much sleep; ate more energy dense caloric food. Most of those who did not eat well were in the category of overweight or obese. This study did not consider the amount of physical activity; however the authors concluded that those who were more physically active were competent eaters. They also suggested that more studies be done on how stress or social support affects colleges students health (Quick, Shoff, Lohse, White, Horacek, and Greene, 2015).
From a score of zero (never) to six (always) these responses explain how food plays a role in their life, whether they feel like food controls their life or if they have an eating disorder along with each student’s Body Mass Index (BMI).
In this study, 78.5 percent were considered normal weight and 16.5 percent were overweight or obese. Even though there was more normal weight than overweight students in this particular study, that is not the case for every college. Overweight students were more likely to report complete physical inactivity, binge eating, dieting and a desire to be thinner compared to their classmates of normal weight. Instead of eating healthier, college students chose to diet and not change their physical activity which does not work nor is healthy. The authors suggest that when educating college students, they should receive psychological help as well because it is a difficult process to make health changes (Desai, Miller, Staples, & Bravender,
2008)
The article, “Relationship of Eating Competence, Sleep Behaviors, Quality, and Overweight Status Among College Students” by Virginia Quick, Suzanne Shoff, Barbara Lohse, Adrienne White, Tanya Horacek, and Geoffrey Greene compared the amount of sleep to competent eating and how it affects one’s health. The questionnaire was sent out to eight universities in different areas of the country to students ages 18-24 not majoring in Health and Human Services which resulted in 1035 student participants. After the questionnaire, students were asked if they were getting the recommended seven hours of sleep or if they had trouble sleeping. They were followed up for a physical assessment, where they obtained their students BMI results. The results showed that those who slept better made healthier food choices as opposed to those who did not get much sleep; ate more energy dense caloric food. Most of those who did not eat well were in the category of overweight or obese. This study did not consider the amount of physical activity; however the authors concluded that those who were more physically active were competent eaters. They also suggested that more studies be done on how stress or social support affects colleges students health (Quick, Shoff, Lohse, White, Horacek, and Greene, 2015).