Hydration Status and Contribution of Water and Beverages to Totalfluid intake of Undergraduate Students (16-24 Years) in Nigerian Universities

Abstract

This work assessed the hydration status and contribution of water and beverages to fluid intake of undergraduate students (16-24 years) in Nigeria Universities. The study adopted a cross sectional survey design among the students from three federal universities in Nigeria located at different regions. Multiple stage sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 3248 (1824 males and 1424 females) from the three universities namely: Ahmade Bello University Zaria (ABU), University of Ibadan (UI) and University of Nigeria, Nsuuka (UNN). A sub-sample of 162 respondents (5% of the sample) was randomly selected for hydration status and fluid intake studies. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio demographic characteristics, frequencies and pattern of water and beverage consumption. The likert scale attitude continuum was used to determine factors that influenced water and beverage intakes. A 7-day fluid specific record was employed for the assessment of fluid intake. The portable hand-held urine refractometer (ERMA Hand Refractometer) and urine colour chart were used for the assessment of hydration status of respondents. The structured questionnaire was subjected to Cronbach alpha reliability test with coefficient of 0.82. Data obtained were coded into excel and cleaned to ensure that accurate information was obtained and was transferred to the Statistical Product and Service Solution (IBM-SPSS) version 20 for data analysis. Chi-square and Pearson correlation were used to explore the relationship among variables and results were presented as frequencies and percentages. Significance was accepted at p< 0.05. The result showed that more than half (56.2%) of respondents were males, and 65.9% were between the ages of 20-24 years old. A good number (57.1%) of respondents lived in the hostel while 42.9% lived off-campus at the time of the study. Majority (95.1%) of respondents were single. About 28% were 100 level students in terms of educational level with over 70% having monthly allowance of less than N25, 000. Tap and bottle water were the major (34.2% and 33.6%) source of drinking water, respectively. More than half (55.4%) of respondents drank water 3-6 times a day. In terms of pattern of drinking of water, 75.1% of respondents drank water anytime of the day, 58.7% drank water on awakening, and 81.7% took water while eating meals. Nearly all (97.2%) of respondents consumed water when they are thirsty. Approximately 96% of respondents attest to consuming beverages and only 4.3% did not. Frequency of beverage intake of respondents showed that ABU and UNN students rarely consumed cow milk and its products (37.6% and 42.3%), soy bean milk 0(57.8% and 55.2%), 100% fruit juice (41.0 and 43.2%), and fruit drink (45.1% and 44.0%), respectively compared to those in UI. Mean contribution of water (2.39 L for ABU, 2.17 L for UI and 2.15 L for UNN) was not significantly different p< 0.05 from that contributed by beverages (0.43 L for ABU, 0.49 L for UI and 0.48 L for UNN). Hydration status of respondents using refractometer measurement showed that more than two-third (85.8%) of them were normally hydrated and little above seventy percent (74.1%) were euhydrated judging from the urine coloured chart measurements. Therefore, university undergraduates in Nigeria had normal hydration status even though they did not meet the requirement for fluid intake for their sex and age. Water contributed little more than beverages and almost all the students drank beverages. This reflects the need for nutrition education to sensitize them on the importance of drinking more water to prevent certain non-communicable diseases, enhance their academic performance and avoid the danger of the respondents replacing beverage for water in the future.