The association of eating habits and lifestyle with overweight and obesity among health sciences students in Taif University, KSA

Impact of the Intake of Snacks and Lifestyle Behaviors on Obesity among University Students Living in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Unhealthy eating habits increase the risk of obesity. This study investigated the association between obesity and the intake of snacks and lifestyle behaviors among university students in Saudi Arabia. The study included 662 students aged 18–29 years, studying at King Abdulaziz University. An online survey collected data on sociodemographic characteristics, height, and weight, to calculate body mass index (BMI), lifestyle behaviors, dietary habits, and snack intake. The prevalence of overweight and obese students was 18.6% and 12.7%, respectively. Sociodemographic characteristics and lifestyle behaviors had insignificant effects on obesity. Obese students consumed two meals daily and more cereals during breakfast. Non-obese students consumed more beverages at breakfast and had their daily meals with their families. The frequency of intake of snacks had an insignificant effect on obesity. However, obese students had a significantly higher intake of potato chips, popcorn, and biscuits, while non-obese students had a significantly higher intake of salads compared with obese students. Students consumed significantly less fruit and vegetables, chocolate, biscuits, nuts, and dairy products as snacks when inside the university compared to outside. To reduce obesity among students, universities should ensure access to healthy snacks, and provide health education programs to encourage healthy eating habits and lifestyles.

Performance Analysis of Boosting Classifiers in Recognizing Activities of Daily Living

Physical activity is essential for physical and mental health, and its absence is highly associated with severe health conditions and disorders. Therefore, tracking activities of daily living can help promote quality of life. Wearable sensors in this regard can provide a reliable and economical means of tracking such activities, and such sensors are readily available in smartphones and watches. This study is the first of its kind to develop a wearable sensor-based physical activity classification system using a special class of supervised machine learning approaches called boosting algorithms. The study presents the performance analysis of several boosting algorithms (extreme gradient boosting-XGB, light gradient boosting machine-LGBM, gradient boosting-GB, cat boosting-CB and AdaBoost) in a fair and unbiased performance way using uniform dataset, feature set, feature selection method, performance metric and cross-validation techniques. The study utilizes the Smartphone-based dataset of thirty individuals. The results showed that the proposed method could accurately classify the activities of daily living with very high performance (above 90%). These findings suggest the strength of the proposed system in classifying activity of daily living using only the smartphone sensor's data and can assist in reducing the physical inactivity patterns to promote a healthier lifestyle and wellbeing.

Quality of Life and Its Predictors Among Nursing Students in Saudi Arabia

Purpose: This study investigated the quality of life (QOL) and its predictors among nursing students in a university in Saudi Arabia. Design: A descriptive, cross-sectional design. Method: A convenience sample of 175 baccalaureate nursing students from a university in Saudi Arabia was surveyed in this study. Using the WHOQOL-BREF and a sociodemographic sheet, the QOL and its predictors among Saudi nursing students were investigated. Findings: The respondents reported a mean score of 4.09 ( SD = 0.71) and 4.02 ( SD = 0.87) for their overall perceptions of QOL and health, respectively. The psychological and physical health of these students had the highest and poorest QOL perception, respectively. Gender, academic year level, community type, and monthly family income exerted a multivariate effect on the four domains of QOL. Conclusion: The study underscores the need to ensure the highest level of health and well-being among nursing students while they are undergoing training for their professional roles as nurses. The findings should be utilized by policymakers in nursing institutions in Saudi Arabia in creating policies centered on the holistic development of nursing students in the country.