Assessment Of Weight Loss Practices And Associated Factors Among Postgraduate Students In The University Of Ghana

ABSTRACT Introduction: Weight gain by students moving from one educational level to the other for the first time is of increasing public health concern. The perception of an individual's body weight aids in understanding and envisaging weight reduction practices among adults (Wang, Liang, & Chen, 2009). School/college environments are particularly at risk of this phenomenon because students may not have the time to pay particular attention to physical health as a result of heavy academic work-load. Davila et al. (2014) declared that unhealthy weight loss practices (e.g., fasting, vomiting, taking diet pills, and laxatives) are common among tertiary students worldwide. Objective: The main objective of the study was to examine weight loss practices and factors associated with such practices among post-graduate students in the University of Ghana, in order to inform the design of future interventions. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study involving a target sample size of 211 post-graduate students was carried out at the University of Ghana, in Accra. Multistage sampling technique was used to select post-graduate students in the various colleges at the University. Questionnaires were administered to these post-graduate students and data on factors associated with trying to lose weight and weight lost practices were collected. The analysis involved the use of chisquare tests to describe simple relationships and multivariable logistic regression for independent and dichotomous dependent variables to quantify associations. Results: A total of 211 post-graduate students were recruited and used for analysis. The overall prevalence of trying to lose weight in the previous year was 83.4% among post-graduate students. Almost 1 in 5 practiced unhealthy weight loss. Also, 36.0% of the participants perceive themselves as underweight, 22.8%