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Obesity and overweight, under-nutrition, m icronutrient deficiency and other
forms o f m alnutrition affect m illions o f people worldwide. The objective of
this study was to assess the prevalence o f nutritional status using BM I values
o f undergraduates o f the first and fourth years o f study residing in hostels of
University o f Sri Jayewardenepura. The study population o f this descriptive
cross sectional study consisted o f 662 female undergraduates in their firs
and fourth years o f study. A self-adm inistrated questionnaire wai
administered and weight and height were measured in all subjects. Meai
BMI o f the sample was 19.35 kgm*2. According to Asian cut-off values, th<
prevalence o f underweight, normal, overweight and obese were 41.1%
47.6%, 6% and 5.3% respectively. 53.7% o f 1st year and 50.9% o f 4th yea
students were malnourished. M ajority (53.6% ) o f the study sample were ii
the normal BMI category whilst sim ilar prevalence o f underweight (41.1% '
less prevalence o f overweight (4.1%) and obese (1.2% ) were observed whe:
WHO cut o ff values were used. A statistically significant difference was nc
seen in the academic year with regard to BMI (p>0.05). M ost o f the studie
conducted among female university students in other countries revealed tin
the m ajority (over 70%) o f die students were in the normal and overweigl
category. In our undergraduate female student population, how ever, near]
half were in the Under-nutrition category probably due to the low quality <
meals available in the hostel canteens
