Prevalence of malnutrition in female undergraduates residing in hostels of university of Sri Jayewardenepura

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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