Dietary Fiber Intake and Defection Frequency of University Students

Authors : Ebru KOLÇAK, Aysun YÜKSEL

Pages : 1-9

Doi:10.57224/jhpr.1176488

View : 11 | Download : 5

Publication Date : 2023-02-28

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Aims: This study was conducted to determine the dietary fiber intake of university students and defecation frequency to examine the relationship between them. Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out in May and June 2019 with volunteer students studying at University. Through face-to-face interviews, the researcher obtained students\` demographic information, nutrition and physical activity habits, defecation frequency, and three-day food consumption records. Results: While 238 of those who participated in the research were female students, 57 of them were male, in total 295 participated. The mean age of the students is 21.14±2.68 for girls and 21.53±2.59 for boys. It was determined that the BMI values of 11.3% of the female students and 24.6% of the male students were within the overweight range. Mean dietary fiber intakes of female and male students were 14.7±5.5 g and 14.0±6.2 g, respectively. The average number of defecations per day was 1.15±0.69 for all students. A positive correlation was found between the pulp intake rate of the students and the number of defecations per day. Dietary fiber intake has been found to have a significant effect on defecation every day. One unit increase in fiber intake increased the daily defecation rate by 0.17 times. It was calculated that the students consumed a mean of 3.50±4.1 liters of tea/coffee daily, whereas they drank 1.71±0.71 liters of water. Conclusion: In this study, it was observed that both female and male university students did not meet their daily fiber requirement according to their three-day food consumption records, and the number of defecations increased as dietary fiber intake increased. Considering the positive effects of dietary fiber on health, nutrition education should be given to university students to meet their daily fiber requirements, or national nutrition education programs should be developed.
Keywords : Diyet posası, Dışkılama, Konstipasyon, Üniversite öğrencisi