Street food consumption as a risk factor for symptoms of dyspepsia in medical students

Abstract

Introduction: University students often eat at street food stalls, which can cause various digestive symp-toms, although this has not been evidenced in studies carried out in this population. Objective: To establish whether food consumption in street food stalls is associated with symptoms of dyspepsia in Peruvian medical students. Materials and methods: A secondary data analysis of a multicenter study was conducted. Of 1 797 medical students surveyed in eight medical schools, a statistical power of 93% was calculated. Symptoms of dyspepsia were associated with a history of food consumption in street food stalls. Association statistics were obtained with bivariate and multivariate models. Results: The prevalence of functional dyspepsia varied between 9-28% and food consumption in street stalls between 1-5%. In the multivariate analysis, eating food in the street was a factor associated with a greater frequency of suffering from functional dyspepsia (aPR: 1.45; 95%CI: 1.09-1.94; p=0.010). In addition, other significant variables were the female sex (aPR: 1.40; 95%CI: 1.15-1.71 p=0.001) and people eating at similar times (aPR: 0.76; 95%CI: 0.61-0.94; p=0.012) adjusted for age, and academic term. Conclusions: Dyspepsia symptoms were more common in students who ate their food from street stalls. This should be monitored by health and university authorities, as it can have short-and long-term consequences.