Life style factors and dietary pattern correlation with Body Mass Index, Menstrual health and academic outcomes among female students of universities in Sialkot, Pakistan

Abstract

The university life phase is causing changes in female student’s lifestyle, dietary habits reduced morning walking or physical activities and increased psychological stress; all these are affecting their health for the long term. This analysis was done from 1st January 2026 to 28th February 2026 at Grand Asian University, Sialkot. Female students of an age group between 17-30 years participated in this study. We performed a chi-square test for statistically significance and Bonferroni correction for statistical reliability. The coding of these analyses was created and run using the Jupyter Notebook of Anaconda Navigator 1.9.12. In this analysis, it was observed that the majority of students were underweight, followed by overweight and obese. The prevalence of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) was observed (13.8%) and the majority of the participants (21.2%) were not sure about it. Eating habits like eating fried food and sugary beverage intake were very dominant in female students and sometimes ignoring of meal due to stress and during exams with (40.1%) participants, although (34.7%) left it often. The majority of participants' eating habits changed during university life. Lifestyle factors like late-night eating, sitting behaviour, never exercising, low sleep duration, were found very common and in a high percentage of female students of Sialkot. Good lifestyle factors and healthy dietary patterns should be adopted to overcome it.