Fastfood consumption of students at Hanoi Medical University and some associated factors in academic year 2020 - 2021

Abstract

The study objective was to describe the current situation of using fast food among Hanoi medical university (HMU) students in 2020 - 2021 and its association factors. A crosssectional descriptive study was conducted among 315 first-year, third-year and sixth-year students majoring in Preventive Medicine and first-year, third-year Bachelor of Nutrition. 82.2% of students used fast food. The most three times of using fast food showed that students used traditional sandwiches (43.7%); used fast food at all main meals and rarely eat late at night/late dinner and often eat with other foods (56.9%). Nearly half of students’ fast food use (43.9%) was accompanied by soft drinks. Students mainly bought fast food and eat at home. The main reason to eat fastfood was gathering with friends/relatives and did not have time to cook. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that students with normal finances tend to use fast food more than students with financial difficulties. Therefore, eating fastfood is common among HMU students. Communication programs and guidance on the transition from fast food to healthy eating need to be done with students. In addition, the movement of meet friends and eat healthy food should be launched with students.