Students in tertiary level education are mostly young adults that are transiting from the teenage years to adulthood. Since there is less restriction as compared to their teenage years, university and college students might involve in risky behaviours that may affect their health, social and academic performance. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate and identify the differences of health risk factors and health promoting behaviour that have been practiced by students in Malaysia. A cross sectional study was conducted using closed-ended questionnaires distributed to university and college students via emails. The results showed that 77.0% students claimed they have no health problem. However 49.0% of the non-medical students did not know whether they have normal BMI. Among the medical students, 62.0% rarely do physical exercise even though most are seriously concern about their fat consumption (95.0%). Only 30.0% of the total students have awareness of wearing seat belt. For health promoting behaviour, 33.0% of female students have never perform breast self examination (BSE), while 65.0% of male students have never perform testicular self examination (TSE). These findings confirmed that there are differences in health risk factors and health promoting behaviour that have been practiced by the students.
Food insecurity, the inability to have sufficient, safe and nutritious food for an active and healthy life, was found to be closely associated with adverse health outcomes. However, limited studies can be found that clearly explains lipid profile and inflammatory events among food secure and insecure individuals, especially among young adults in university, thus creating the need for further research. This study investigated both groups including their gender distribution to determine lipid profile such as total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and inflammatory marker, high sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP), with waist circumference (WC), fat mass index (FMI) and waist-to-height-ratio (WHTR). A comparative cross-sectional study was carried out among participants aged between 18 to 25 years old (N=124) who were selected through the Adults Food Security Survey Module (AFSSM) and participated in blood draw procedures. Well-established blood markers of lipid profile and inflammatory marker were measured. Percentage of food secure individuals (56.5%) was slightly higher than food insecure (43.5%). Although mean (M) of Hs-CRP for male and female (M=1.000, M=0.645) was higher in food secure group, all other variables showed higher measurements among the food insecure groups. Lipid profiles, TC (M=5.175, M=5.062) and LDL (M=3.100, M=2.914) were high for both male and female respectively, while TG is high for male (M=0.817) (p=0.037) and HDL for female (M=1.826). For body composition such as FMI (M=4.494, M=5.452), WC (M=77.46, M=76.82) and WHtR (M=0.471, M=0.497), male and female respectively, in food insecure group showed higher results but only FMI showed a significant difference (p = 0.016). Statistics showed an association between food security status and lipid profile (TG) and with FMI. However, no significant association was found with inflammatory marker. This study will continue further in depth in gene expression of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPAR-y) and endothelial dysfunction to better understand this issue. Regardless, current data provides knowledge and understanding of food insecurity experienced by young adults in university campus and may help them in making healthier food choices and be appreciative of the risk of chronic illnesses.