Date of Award

Winter 8-1-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.Sc. Nursing

Department

Department of Psychiatric (Mental Health) Nursing

First Advisor

Dr Baby S Nayak

Second Advisor

Mrs Yashodha S

Abstract

ABSTRACT A research study titled, “A cross sectional study to assess breakfast skipping and eating patterns and its influence on academic achievement and nutritional status among Nursing students in selected Nursing Institutions in Udupi District, Karnataka.” was conducted by Ms Pratiti Haldar in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Nursing at Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal, Manipal University, Karnataka.

The objectives of the study were to : assess the breakfast eating and skipping patterns among the Nursing students by using self-administered questionnaire, identify the factors associated with breakfast skipping among the Nursing students by using self-administered questionnaire, assess the academic achievement among Nursing students using sessional exam grades and immediate visual memory and focus test, identify the nutritional status of Nursing students and to find association between breakfast skipping and the academic performance and nutritional status among Nursing students.

The conceptual framework of this study was based on the Rosenstock Health Belief Model.

A cross sectional survey approach was adopted for the research study. The sample consisted of diploma and degree Nursing students of Manipal School of Nurisng and Manipal College of Nurisng, Manipal, Manipal University. Enumerate sampling technique was used.

Administrative permission was obtained from the Dean, MCON Manipal, and head of the selected Nursing Colleges and Schools of Udupi District, Karnataka. Ethical clearance from the Institutional research committee Manipal College of Nursing Manipal and Institutional Ethical Committee of Kasturba Hospital, Manipal was taken. Informed consent was obtained from the participants of the study. The data was collected from January 4, 2016 to February 6, 2016.

The tools used for data collection were demographic Proforma, Likert scale on eating patterns, Ranking and Likert Scale for factors for skipping, Anthropometric Proforma and Academic achievement. To ensure content validity of instruments, the instruments were submitted to nine experts and modifications were made as per the expert’s suggestions. The pretesting was done among five post basic Nursing students of Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal.

Reliability was established among 20 Nursing students of City College of Nursing. Reliability for the tool two i.e. eating patterns was established using Cronbach’s alpha which was r = 0.721. The reliability score for tool three i.e. factors was, r = 0.71(Spearman brown rank) for section A and r = 0.72 (Cronbach’s alpha) for section B. The reliability found for tool four was r = 1 (inter rater reliability) i.e. Anthropometric Proforma and Pearson’s correlation was used for tool five where r= 0.78 for section B and r = 0.77 for section C respectively. The pilot study was conducted among 30 Nursing students and research was found to be feasible.

The data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 package. Descriptive as well as inferential statistics were used to analyze data. The study revealed that a maximum number of 364 (69.1%) students belonged to 17 to 20 years of age and maximum number of 488 (92.6%) students were females. A majority of 312 (59.2%) students were hostellers. Maximum number of 354 (67.2%) students who participated in study were from B.Sc. Nursing. Most of the 480 (91.1%) students did not consume any kind of medications and maximum number of 253 (48%) students preferred having breakfast from hostel. A majority of the 170 (32.3%) students who participated in the study belonged to first year Nursing i.e. (2015 to 2019) batch.

It was found that most of the 278 (52.75%) students skipped breakfast. Majority of the 215 (40.7%) students ranked lack of time as the highest factor/ reason to skip breakfast. Majority of the 414 (78.5%) students had good perception towards breakfast eating. A maximum number of 283 (53.7%) students were normal weight. A maximum number of 191 (25 %) students were in the first rank. Most of the 522 (99.1%) students scored good in immediate visual memory test and about 500 (94.9 %) of the students scored good in the focus test. Significant association between nutritional status and breakfast skipping and non-skipping (χ² = 11.85, p = .008) at .05 level was found.

A majority of the 400 (75.9%) students preferred eating traditional food items (Idli, Vada, Dosa, Uttapam etc.) as their breakfast. Most of the 363 (68.9%) students felt that breakfast is not an important meal of the day. A majority of 233 (44.2%) students take 10 minutes to finish their breakfast and 257 (48.8%) talk to friends while eating breakfast.

A majority 431 (81.8%) of the students study (one to five) hours in a day , 299 (56.7%) sleep (seven to eight) hours in a day, 260 (49.3%) slept (seven to eight) hours the previous night, 311 (59%) prefer eating breakfast with their family and 381 (72.3%) surf internet/ watch TV less than two hours in day.

It was also found that there is significant association between nutritional status and breakfast skipping (χ² (2) = 7.41, p = .007) at 0.05 level and there was no association between academic achievement and breakfast skipping.

Thus the study concludes that the pattern of skipping breakfast varies from individual to individual. Among the Nursing students skipping of breakfast was slightly higher than regular breakfast eaters. Nutritional status of the students who skip breakfast is affected when we compare to that of regular breakfast eaters. Hence breakfast is the first and most important meal of the day and should not be skipped.

Download

Included in

Nursing Commons

Share

COinS