ABSTRACT
Saudi society is one of the gulf societies that changed dramatically during the last three decades. The changes include life style, nutrition pattern and food habits. This study aimed to identify the common food habits among students of health colleges, beside clarifying its relation with other factors. A sample of 645 students [401 male and 244 female] aged 18 to 24 years were chosen from the two health colleges in Dammam. Data about socioeconomic status, health history, anthropometric measurements, and food habits were collected. Also, a special food habits measure consists of 25 parameters were used for classifying students according to their food habits. According to this measure, students were classified into three groups; students with bad food habits [BFH]; acceptable food habits [AFH]; and excellent food habits [EFH]. The results showed that 55.96% of students had bad food habits, and 35.97% had acceptable food habits, while 8.07% had excellent food habits. Also, the bad food habits were more common among males than females [66.8% vs. 38.1% respectively]. The majority of BHF group do not eat three meals daily; less than one fifth of them drink milk daily; 90.0% drink carbonated beverages daily; and the daily consumption from carbonated beverages among BHF group was significantly higher than AHF group [2.1 +/- 1.3 vs. 1.2 +/- 1.0 time/day respectively] [P<0.05]. The education of the majority of BHF and AHF fathers had less than university degree [79.3% and 82.4% respectively] while the education of the majority of fathers of EHF group had university degree or higher. In contrary the mother education had no effect where the education of more than 75% of mothers in this study was less than university. Moreover, more than 50% of EHF group suffer from underweight. In conclusion the majority of health sciences college students had bad food habits particularly males, and father education determine the acquired food habits. This study recommend promotion of healthy eating, habits and physical activity