Analysis of factors determining the nutritional status of undergraduate students in Makerere University
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors determining the nutrition status of
undergraduate students at school of statistics and planning. The assessment was based on
students’ upkeep, parents’ income, students’ employment status, sponsor and the cost of meals
using primary data sourced from students from school of statistics and planning using a sample
of 96 students. Data was collected from respondents using a self-administered questionnaire and
through entering filled questionnaires into Stata a computer program, data was analyzed analysis
was made at three different levels that is univariate, bivariate and multivariate.
In the results, majority of the surveyed students were unemployed (93%) and only 7% of the
surveyed students were employed. Slightly more than six on every ten (61%) of the surveyed
students were privately sponsored while 39% were Government students. The average upkeep of
students was 636218.8 which is relatively low.
At bivariate level, the results show that there is a significant relationship between the number of
meals and the students’ upkeep (P<0.05), while parents’ income, whether a student is employed
or not, students’ sponsor, and cost of meals are not significantly related the number of meals a
student gets a day.
In the multivariate analysis, student’s number of meals is significantly associated with his or her
amount of upkeep, while parents’ income, sponsor, student’s employment status and cost of
meals are insignificantly associated with the number of meals (p>0.05).
In conclusion, only one hypothesis was rejected implying that there is appositive relationship
between the number of meals and students’ upkeep thus upkeep significantly influences the
number of meals a student gets per day. However, the four hypotheses were not rejected which
meant no relationship between number of meals and the four explanatory factors (parents
income, cost of meals, sponsor and employment status). The study recommends that parents
should increase students’ upkeep and also future researchers should look at the nature and impact
of meals on the student’s performance.