Obesity, unhealthy dietary habits and sedentary behaviors among university students in Sudan: growing risks for chronic diseases in a poor country

Table 1 Socio-demographic characteristics of Sudanese university students according to gender

Characteristics	Male		Female		P value	Total
Characteristics	N	%	N	%	P value	N	%
Age (years)
Mean ± SD	22.30 ± 2.18		20.44 ± 1.77		<0.001	21.29 ± 2.17
Specialty
Science	109	59.6	126	58.1	<0.762	235	58.8
Art	74	40.4	91	41.9		165	41.2
Mother’s education^a
Low	114	62.3	82	37.8	<0.001	196	49.0
Middle	38	20.8	92	42.4		130	32.5
High	31	16.9	43	19.8		74	18.5
Father’s education^a
Low	87	47.5	62	28.6	<0.001	149	37.3
Middle	58	31.7	70	32.2		128	32.0
High	38	20.8	85	39.2		123	30.7
Mother’s occupation
Unemployed/housewife	151	82.5	182	83.9	<0.717	333	83.2
Employed	32	17.5	35	16.1		67	16.8
Father’s occupation
Officer	48	26.2	73	33.6	<0.119	121	30.3
Worker	85	46.4	98	45.2		183	45.8
Businessman	34	18.6	28	12.9		62	15.5
Unemployed/retired	16	8.7	18	8.3		34	8.5

^aLow education, illiterate; middle education, primary or/and intermediate school; high education, secondary school and above

ISSN: 1347-4715