ABSTRACT

 There is limited information on the food habits, other lifestyles and nutritional status among young adults in Abia state. This study assessed the food habits, other lifestyles and nutritional status of young adults in Aba-South Local Government of Abia State. A cross sectional study involving a random selection of young adults in Abia state was carried out. The population ofthe study included young adults from different Institutions, School of Health, Polytechnic and Private University; the institutions used in this study were Abia State Polytechnic, Rhema University and School of Health all in Abia State. A total number of four hundred and twenty young adults in which 33 (School of Health), 214 (Abia State Polytechnic) and 173 (Rhema University) were selected randomly. This was based on the population ofthe students in each institution. A structured questionnaire constructed into six (6) sections was used to collect information on demographic and socio-economic characteristics, food habits, lifestyles, 24-hour dietary recall and food frequency questionnaires and their anthropometric measurement was done. SPSS 23 was used to analyse the data. Descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) was obtained for the demographic characteristics, food habits, lifestyle and nutritional status while chisquare and correlations were used to determine the relationship between food habits, lifestyle and nutritional status of young adults. Significance wasjudged at P (0.05). Many of the respondents, 51.1% and 41.2% of the respondents are in Tertiary education, level of education being attained by these respondents implies that they could have knowledge needed to eat healthy diets and also maintain healthy lifestyle. Findings revealed a high prevalence of unhealthy eating habit among the young adults this was indicated by a many of the subjects who skipped their meals (59%) and consumed more of snacks (89.0%).Majority (89.0%) of the respondents reported that they consumed snacks with the reason that, 47.6'% of them like snacks while 24.3% consume snacks in order to make up for missed meals. There was no significant relation between work-out in a day (lifestyle), frequency of fruit consumption in a week (food habits) and BMI (nutritional status) but the study also showed a significant association between the income level, eating habit, lifestyle of the subjects with BMI (nutritional status). However, this study also revealed that the waist-hip-ratio of the young adults both males and females (97.0% and 93.6%) were at low risk of overweight and obesity. Most of the respondents agreed that exercise plays a vital role in improving their lifestyles and their physical activity levels. This study recommends further study on the food habits, lifestyle and socioeconomic status ofyoung adults as further research among this group is necessary in other to draw conclusion on their food habits, lifestyle pattern and the socioeconomic status. There is need for adequate cafeteria around the area to encourage purchase of adequate diets in order to achieve healthy and active life..