Influences of Physical Environments on University Student Eating Behaviors

Faced with rising tuition costs and limited financial means, university students experience a range of physical environments that can have an impact on their eating behaviors and health. Data was gathered from 188 students from two Canadian east coast universities to determine relationships between their day to day living and eating arrangements and self-reported three day food frequency intakes. Hypotheses testing with bivariate analyses were conducted. Students had a range of living arrangements, only 15% ate half or more of their meals in the university cafeteria and few met the minimum food guide recommendations for vegetables/fruits and grains, in particular. Statistically significant relationships were found between the living and eating arrangements and intakes of grains, meat/alternates and some foods to limit. University healthy eating promotion strategies for students need to be multifaceted and consider the variety of aspects of their physical environments as well as the other determinates of health.