Lifestyle and Health Habits of a Canadian University Community

Abstract

In 2014, World Health Organization reported that more than 1.9 billion people were obese (World Health Organization, 2014). This epidemic is thought to cost $2 trillion globally every year (Dobbs et al., 2014). With the increase of the prevalence of obesity, there is a continuous search for effective obesity-prevention and health promotion strategies. In a Canadian university, Perusse-Lachance and colleagues (2010) showed that 22.9% of students and 37.3% of staff members were either overweight or obese. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of obesity, healthy lifestyle habits, and healthy environments among students and employees of a Canadian university. Respondents were students and employees during the 2016 fall semester (October). A web based-survey assessing lifestyle habits, such as physical activity and nutrition, was sent by email to all students (n = 15,000) and employees (n = 1,500). In total, 1,989 students (12.1%) and 484 employees (33.6%) completed the questionnaire. All data were analyzed using SPSS. Results showed that 32.7% of students and 44.5% of employees were overweight. Results also revealed that 55.2% of students and 44.9 % of employees were considered physically inactive. Regarding vegetables and fruit, 81.2% of students and 79.4% of employees did not meet the Canadian recommendations. The herein results suggest that overweight and obesity can be important concerns in a well-educated sample and they can be associated with various health-related behaviors.