Association between eating habits and quality of life among Chilean university students

Abstract

Objective To estimate the association between eating habits and quality of life (QOL) in Chilean university students. Participants: 1,212 students from the Universidad de La Frontera, Chile (mean age 18.7 ± 2.15) were surveyed in January–March 2018. Methods: Participants completed a cross-sectional self-report survey to evaluate QOL using the WHOQOL-BREF scale and eating habits with a food habits survey. Results: Students reporting a better healthy eating habits score also presented a higher QOL. Eating breakfast and eating home-cooked meals is a protective factor for QOL in each domain. The consumption of sweet snacks was shown to be a risk factor for the physical health and environment domains. The consumption of fast food is shown as the greatest risk factor in the physical domain. Conclusion: Healthy and unhealthy eating habits are associated with different dimensions of QOL. University authorities should develop new policies to improve the QOL of the entire university community.

Keywords:

• breakfast
• eating habits
• quality of life
• university students

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of Chile and received approval from the Ethics Committee of the Universidad de La Frontera.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported and funded by Universidad de La Frontera (Project IAF 17-0009).