Publication:

Cross-sectional descriptive study of lifestyle patterns of undergraduate medical students in a metropolitan Medical College

Background Studies report physical inactivity, mental stress, tobacco and alcohol use and unhealthy and untimely dietary habits in a sizeable proportion of medical students. This complete-enumeration, descriptive study was conducted in a metropolitan teaching hospital to assess the dietary habits and lifestyle of undergraduate medical students for designing specific health interventions based on the results of the study.

Methods After obtaining permissions and written informed consent, the participants were interviewed and also asked to self-rate their stress on a scale of zero to nine. Their heights and weights were recorded.

Results Lifestyle patterns of male (n=78) and female (n=94) respondents included vegetarianism (27.9%), skipping breakfast (13.95%), consuming four or more meals daily (61.63%), snacking between meals (43.02%), consumption of caffeinated soft drinks (38.37%) and tea/coffee (84.31%), sleeping for 6-8 hours daily (80.81%) with no gender difference in minimum and maximum sleep hours, lack of physical exercise (65.12%) or outdoor recreation (25.58%) and dominance of internet, television and computers as recreational tools. 60.46% studied only before exams. None were tobacco or alcohol habitual. 94.19% students had regular bowel habits and 68.03% had never suffered from constipation. Self-rated stress was often study-related and only 6.98% sought medical opinion for stress. Menstrual cycles in female respondents were irregular (14.89%), with mood changes (69.15%) and adversely affected studies (19.15%).

Conclusions The same recreational tools utilized by the respondents can be deployed for educational interventions to modify the identified risk factors in this study.