Study of the Effect of Food Habit, Lifestyle and Daily Trip on Physical and Mental Status of Subjects at Islamic University in Kushtia, Bangladesh

doi:10.4236/ojs.2012.22027

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Open Journal of Statistics, 2012, 2, 219-223

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojs.2012.22027 Published Online April 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ojs) 219

Study of the Effect of Food Habit, Lifestyle and Daily Trip

on Physical and Mental Status of Subjects at Islamic

University in Kushtia, Bangladesh*

Shahedur Rahman1, Anowar Khasru Parvez2#, Abdus Sabur3, Shahj ah an A li 3

1Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Jessore Science and Technology University, Jessore, Bangladesh

2Department of Microbiology, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

3Department of Accounting and Inform ation S ystems, Islamic University, Kushtia, Bangladesh

Email: #[email protected]

Received November 20, 2011; revised December 25, 2011; accepted January 10, 2012

ABSTRACT

This is a qualitative (study that used framework analysis) to examine by interviews among University personnel who

live inside and o utside the Islamic University campus in Kushtia, Ban gladesh. In the present study, we found that sub-

jects who live inside of the University feel better physically and mentally than the nonresident subjects. It was found

that residents are more fit and feel better during and after class time. Resident subjects have less stress and maintain

balanced diet for which they have good average BMI value than the nonresident subjects. In addition nonresident sub-

jects have suffered diseases comparatively much more than resident subjects.

Keywords: Food Habit; Life Style; Daily Trip; Physical Health; Mental Health; Health Risk

1. Introduction

A person’s life style, mental health and physical health

are closely related. They often affect one another. Recent

research on psycho physiology revealed that some mental

health problems/mental stress conditions can cause phy-

sical ailments. Lifestyle factors, mental and physical

stress, food habit etc can also influence the onset and

progression of various diseases like cancer, cardiovascu-

lar disease, diabetes mellitus (type 1 & type 2), [1] infec-

tious disease [2], myocardial ischaemia [3], cell aging [4],

inherited long QT syndrome, coronary heart disease [4],

mutation in DNA sequence, immune system disorders

and other problems. Some time the use of psychological

techniques can even reduce the risk of these most major

diseases [4].

Increasing evidence suggests that diet and lifestyle in

childhood and adolescence also have a potential lifelong

effect on risks for many chronic diseases. The risk for

diabetes was almost 2-fold higher in subjects aged > 40

compared with the age group 20 - 30, systolic BP > 140

mm Hg, and waist hip ratio (WHR) for men. Significant

association of BMI and type 2 diabetes was also ob-

served for females. BMI > 30 showed to be exceedingly

risky state for the occurrence of diabetes [5,6].

Since there have been very few studies on this issue in

Asian countries, the present questionnaire survey was

elucidated to investigate the relationship between food

habit, various stressful life events and disease onset and

prognosis in a community of a public University of

Bangladesh. Islamic University, Kushtia is situated on

the boundary between two districts Kushtia and Jhenai-

dah. It is 24.5 km away from Kushtia town, 23.5 km

away from Jhenaidah town and 15 km away from

Shailkupa. Every day students, teachers, and staffs are

transported from these three towns who reside there, to

the University campus. And after that time they are

transported back to their resident by the University bus.

This daily trip can cause mental and physical stress to a

person. There are six halls for students (four for males

and two for females) in university campus. Their capac-

ity is approximately 2200. There are 7 quarters for teach-

ers and staff, a dorm for teacher in University campus.

The teacher, staff and student who stay in campus gener-

ally do not need to travel daily to Kushtia, Jhenaidah or

Shailkupa. There, it is reasonable to assume they do not

have same kind of stress than others. There is a small

group of student and staff who neither live inside Uni-

versity campus nor Kushtia, Jhenaidah or Shailkupa.

They live within 1 km of area from campus and they

have different mode of transportation. In the present

study, we aimed to find the effect of food habit, lifestyle

*The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

#Corresponding author.

S. RAHMAN ET AL.

220

and daily trip on physical and mental status among the

subjects who live inside the campus and outside the

campus.

2. Methods

2.1. Study Subjects

This is a qualitative study that used framework analysis

to examine interviews among University personnel in-

cluding teacher, student, and staff. The study comprised

208 subjects (184 students, 17 staffs, 7 teachers). Among

them 112 were male and 96 were female. The subjects

were randomly chosen. All participants were interviewed

by using standard questionnaires that evaluated lifestyle

habits, food habits, trip habit, clinical and biological

characteristics, etc. In this work, we included 160 smok-

ers and 45 nonsmokers. To join th e study, the participant

had to sign a written informed consent (there they all

agree about publishing the study result). Because the

study simulates the usual practice in University in Bang-

ladesh, an ethical approval was not necessary.

2.2. Statistical Analysis

The number of enrolled participants was found to be

adequate to evaluate two-sided standardized differences

between the subgroups of the study. Dietary assessment/

food intake variables, socio-demographic and lifestyle

variables, anthropometric, clinical and biochemical char-

acteristics (BMI), physical activity variables, trip vari-

ables and stamina variables are presented in absolute and

relative frequencies. Associations between categorical

variables were evaluated by means Pearson’s correlation

test, while differences between categorical and several

biochemical, clinical and nutritional variables were eva-

luated, i.e. standardized residuals against fitted values.

All reported p-values are based on two-sided tests and

compared to a significance level of 0.05 and 0.01. SPSS

10 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) software was used for

all the statistical calculations .

3. Results

From Table 1, it is evident that nonresident subjects do

more physical exercise then resident person. It is ob-

served that the resident subjects have higher percentage

of normal BMI than nonresident person. On the other

hand, nonresident people are either more over weight or

underweight than resident subjects. There is a significant

correlation between nonresident and resident personnel’s

BMI (0.230 at 0.05 level). So the correlation proves that

there is good relationship between residence and BMI.

It is clear that nonresident subjects suffer from differ-

ent diseases than resident subjects. They also suffered

higher rates of hereditary disease, skin disease, blood

Table 1. Comparison between various stress variable be-

tween nonresident and resident subjects.

Parameters NonresidentResident

No exercise 29.36% 36.58%

Walk 40.5% 39%

Game 17.46% 14.63%

Others 5.6% 6.1%

Walk & game 4.8% 2.4%

Physical exercise

habit

Walk & other 2.4% 1.2%

Unknown 1.6% 1.2%

Under weight 15.1% 8.5%

Normal 68.3% 85.4%

BMI

Over weight 15.1% 4.9%

Hereditary 3.2% -

Environmental 4.8% 1.22%

Skin 8% 6.1%

Blood related 0.8% -

Food born 0.8% 2.44%

Water born 0.8% 3.7%

Mix 4% 1.2%

Others 8.7% 9.8%

Disease

No disease 69% 75.6%

Meat 43.9% 38.9%

Red meat 19.5% 20.6%

White meat 4.9% 8.7%

Fish 19.5% 24.6.55%

Vegetables 41.5% 31%

Fruits 25.6% 26.2%

Food habit

pattern

Mix 29.3% 39.7%

1 (hour) 2.4% 4.8%

2 (hours) 19.5% 21.4%

3 (hours) 19.5% 18.3%

4 (hours) 25.66% 20.6%

5 (hours) 7.32% 7.1%

6 (hours) 8.5% 11.9%

Study time

6< (hours) 12.2% 3.19%

Yes 55.55% 59.75%

Balance diet

No 44.44% 40.24%

Sleep before 12 a.m. 37.30% 29.26%

Sleep after 12 a.m . 62.69% 70.73%

Wak e u p b ef o r e 7 a.m. 73. 01% 57.31%

Sleeping habit

Wake up after 7 a.m. 25.39% 41.46%

related disease and other disease. Though resident sub-

jects have higher rate of food born and waterborne dis-

eases. Table 1 show that there is no significant differ-

S. RAHMAN ET AL.

221

lowest of 1.022 to the highest of 1.065. It is obser ved th at

65 percent stress determined by the other variables,

which are not considered in our analysis.

ence in food habit between resident and nonresident sub-

jects with respect to meat and fish consumption. But in

case of mix food resident subjects like it more than the

nonresident subjects. On the other hand, higher percent-

age of resident person studies more than six hours. This

data shows that more resident subjects maintain balanced

diet then than the nonresident subjects.

4. Discussion

Many studies show that poor physical health outcomes

Table 1 illustrates the sleeping habit pattern of resi-

dent and nonresident subjects. The data shows higher

percentages of nonresident person go to bed early than

resident person. The data shows that higher percentage of

nonresident persons wake up early in the morning then

the resident person. There is significant correlation pre-

sent between residence and wake up time at 0.05 levels

(–0.164). Significant correlation also present between

residence and bed time. It is found that there is good re-

lationship between residence and wake up time (–0.164

at 0.05 level), residence and bed time (0.238 at 0.01 level)

(Table 2).

Table 2. Correlations between sleeping time and residence.

Residence Wakeup

time Bed

time

Residence Pearson Correlation 1.000 –0.164(*) –0.083

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.0 0.018 0.234

N 208 208 208

Wakeup timePearson Correlation –0.164(*) 1.000 0.238(**)

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.018 0.0 0.001

N 208 208 208

Bed time Pearson Correlation –0.083 0.238(**) 1.000

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.234 0.001 0.0

N 208 208 208

Figure 1 shows the relationship between resident and

nonresident subject’s mental and physical feelings just

after coming to campus and in classroom. Resident per-

son physically and mentally feel better than the nonresi-

dent person during and after class hour. It is found that

there is good relationship between residence and physical

feelings (0.145 at 0.05 level), residence and mental feel-

ings (0.298 at 0.01 level).

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed); **Correlation is sig-

nificant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Table 3. Regression analysis (variables in the equation).

Variables BetaSE Beta t Sig. ToleranceVIF

Constant

Balanced Diet

BMI

Exercise

Income

Table 3 indicates that selected independent variables

explain 35 percent variations in stress. All the independ-

ent variables are significant at 0 percent level of signifi-

cance. The highest contributions for reducing stress are

exercise, income and balanced diet as per primary data. It

is to be noted that there is no multicollinearity among the

independent variables since the range of VIF are from the isease

–0.358

0.244

0.183

0.328

0.387

0.193

0.212

0.057

0.065

0.060

0.080

0.062

0.249

0.163

0.315

0.276

0.179

–1.687

4.259

2.840

5.427

4.825

3.128

0.093

0.000

0.005

0.000

0.002

0.939

0.967

0.949

0.977

0.978

1.065

1.034

1.053

1.023

1.022

Figure 1. Mental and physical feelings just after coming to campus and in classroom.

S. RAHMAN ET AL.

222

result from higher level of stress including blood pres-

sure, hypertension [7,8], self-reported illness [9], im-

mune function, diabetes, hyperglycemia [10], heart dis-

ease [11], dyslipidemia [12], preterm birth [13] and in-

creased carotid artery intima-media thickness [14]. In

addition, health damaging behaviours such as drug mis-

use [15] and cigarette smoking [16] have also been found

to bear strong correlation with stress.

Poor mental health is also related to stress it include

psychological distress [17], depression [18], reduced psy-

chological well-being [19] and psychological functioning

[20], poor mental health [21], increased anxiety [22],

suicidal ideation [15] and reduced self-esteem.

Several of the studies specifically considered the effect

of stress on the management of chronic diseases includ-

ing hypertension [23], HIV/ A IDS [24], sickle cell disease

[25], mental illness [26], substance misuse problems [22]

and myocardial infarction [11]. Elevated stress hormones

contribute to the development of metabolic syndrome

that in turn may be a risk factor for coronary heart dis-

ease and depression.

This study is a cross-sectional study that cannot pro-

vide causal relationships but can only be suggestive of

future research. The evaluation was ascertained through a

questionnaire. We cannot exclude the possibility of un-

der-reporting or over-reporting, although subjects com-

pleted the questionnaires with the help and supervision of

well-trained staff. Further evaluation could increase the

accuracy of our findings. Also, because of a high degree

of statistical co-linearity, ability to d istinguish the effects

of our subjects was limited. In addition, a limited varia-

tion in intakes of meat, fish, milk, etc. in our subjects

could lead to insufficient statistical power to detect sig-

nificant associations.

From this study it observed that the person who lives

within the campus goes to bed late and at the same time

they wake up late at the morning then their nonresident

counterparts. Because of this resident subjects can spend

more time to study at night. The data also shows that

resident subjects spent less time doing physical exercise

than the nonresident personnel. This data proves that the

resident person spent more time for study.

Data also shows that there is not much difference in

food habit between resident and nonresident subjects in

case of meat and fish (protein). But in case of mixed food

more resident subjects like it than the nonresidents be-

cause resident subjects experience monotony. And more

resident subjects maintain balanced diet than the non-

resident subjects. The comparison of BMI among resi-

dent and nonresident subjects also suggests the above

information. BMI comparison shows that more resident

person have their BMI range at normal level than the

nonresident person, and the percentage of BMI range of

nonresident person is higher in case of underweight and

overweight.

The data also suggest that after traveling from Kushtia,

Jhenaidah and Shailkupa higher percentage of nonresi-

dent subjects feel “tired” and “not well” both physically

and mentally just after reaching University and during

and after class. On the other hand, resident do not have to

travel and much lower percentage of them feel “tired”

and “not well” both physically and mentally. The data

suggests that nonresident person have to bear more stress

than the r esident person. We also foun d in our study that

the occurrence of disease is less frequent in resident per-

son than the nonresident person. However, the preva-

lence of food and waterborne disease is grater among

resident subjects than the nonresident subjects due to

unhygienic conditions in hall dinning. Food cost of vari-

ous income levels also varies. Students spent less money

for their food compared to higher income level teachers

and staffs.

It is concluded that nonresident person face more

stress then the resident person. To deal with this stress

maintain balanced diet, more physical exercise, hygienic

practice may be helpful. On the other hand the University

could be transformed to a fully residential university,

because University is spending $1000 - $2000 every day

for transporting students, teachers and staffs, but higher

numbers of these nonr esident subjects are under physical

and mental stress due to the need to travel.

5. Consent

The study was performed with informed consent and

following all the guidelines for experimental investiga-

tions required by the Institutional Research and Ethics

Committee.

6. Acknowledgements

We thank Department of Biotechnology & Genetic En-

gineering, Islamic University and the respondents who

took part in the stud y.

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