Female sex, vegetarian status, nutritional knowledge, sleep quality, and excess weight are associated with intention to lose weight among university students: A cross-sectional study

Saintila J. · Obesity Pillars (2026) · DOI: 10.1016/j.obpill.2026.100274

Resumen

Background: Intention to lose weight (ILW) is common among university students and may be influenced by sociodemographic, nutritional, behavioral, and anthropometric factors. However, evidence integrating these factors in university populations remains limited. Objective: To analyze sociodemographic, lifestyle, vegetarian status, nutritional knowledge (NK), sleep quality, and body mass index (BMI) factors associated with ILW among university students. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among 301 university students. Sociodemographic variables, sleep quality, physical activity, vegetarian status, NK, and BMI were assessed. Poisson regression with robust variance was used to estimate crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (PR/aPR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results: The prevalence of ILW during the previous 12 months was 56.8% (n = 171; 95% CI: 51.1–62.4). Female sex (aPR = 1.29; 95% CI: 1.03–1.61; p = 0.028), vegetarian status (aPR = 1.28; 95% CI: 1.08–1.52; p = 0.004), poor sleep quality according to the PSQI (aPR = 1.22; 95% CI: 1.13–1.32; p < 0.001), and excess weight (aPR = 1.94; 95% CI: 1.55–2.42; p < 0.001) were associated with a higher prevalence of ILW. Compared with high NK, low NK (aPR = 0.62; 95% CI: 0.44–0.87; p = 0.006) and medium NK (aPR = 0.79; 95% CI: 0.63–0.99; p = 0.041) were associated with a lower prevalence of ILW. Conclusion: ILW was frequent among university students and was independently associated with female sex, vegetarian status, higher NK, poor sleep quality, and excess weight. These findings may inform university-based strategies for nutrition education, sleep health, and supervised weight-management counseling.

Instituciones: Universidad Peruana Unión