Awareness, Attitude and Practices regarding Non-communicable diseases among University students in Rajasthan, India

There appears to be a gap in the awareness level and the life–style practices adopted by youngsters regarding non–communicable diseases. A study was done to  assess  the  awareness, attitude and practices and the gap between awareness and practices adopted by the university students regarding the non-communicable diseases. This cross- sectional descriptive study carried over a period of 3 months from August 2010, involving a cohort of 1067 students, admitted during the first-semester 2010 of a reputed all-India technology university was done to assess their awareness, dietary and exercise behaviors in relation to non–communicable diseases using a predesigned and pre–tested questionnaire. Physical examination of 70 randomly selected students was also done to calculate difference between perceived and actual BMI. Roger’s diffusion of innovation model was used to classify them into different groups. 65.96% responded with majority 79.26% being less than 20years of age.34.04% were laggards.73.6% had a positive family history while 58.2% were aware of non-communicable diseases and 70.9% knew ill effects of excessive body weight on it.62.9% skipped their breakfast and 90.9% consumed fast foods regularly. Only 5.4% consumed fruits and 24.3% consumed milk daily while and only 15.2% engaged in some form of physical activity. The need of the hour is an enabling environment along with innovative strategies with multi-sectoral coordination to address the issue of non-communicable diseases and also bridging the gap between awareness and action in adolescents.