Underweight and Dietary Patterns among Ethnic Minority Students in Vietnam
Keywords:
Underweight, Dietary, Ethnic Vietnamese StudentAbstract
In the past decades, Vietnam achieved remarkable improvements in health care. There are still, however, big gaps in the health status between different age and socio economic groups such as ethnic minorities. The aim of this study was to assess the nutrition situation and dietary patterns of ethnic minority students in Vietnam. Cross sectional data were collected from 351 ethnic minority students at Thai Nguyen University of Medicine and Pharmacy (TUMP), Vietnam. The structured interview was designed including the students’ demographic-, socio-economic background, eating habits, anthropometric measurements, and the results of a 24-hour dietary recalled. It was found that prevalence of underweight students was high (25.4%), in contrast, overweight and obesity were relatively low (4.3% and 0.5%). Mostly half of the students did not exercise, more than one-third drank alcoholic beverages, but smoking was low with only 4%. Almost 40% of participants consumed two meals per day only. Energy- and some micronutrient intake did not meet two-thirds of the Vietnamese Recommended Daily Allowances, especially vitamin A, vitamin B2, B12, folate, iron, calcium and fiber. In conclusion, the underweight of ethnic minority students is worrying, particularly as far as female students are concerned. Their diet and eating habits are inappropriate. More nutritional education, promotion of a balanced diet, and improvement of physical activities are highly recommended.
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