Relationships of alcohol consumption and nutritional knowledge on body weight and composition in a group of italian students

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a global problem to which alcohol could contribute, and adolescent anthropometric measures have a predictive role for overweight in adults. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relations among nutritional knowledge, drinking habits and anthropometric measures in a cohort of local young people. METHODS: Two questionnaires on alcohol consumption and on nutritional knowledge were submitted to 110 healthy subjects and their anthropometric data were taken. RESULTS: Nutritional knowledge did not affect anthropometric data in females, while an inverse relationship between nutritional knowledge and WHR was observed in males. In females a quadratic relation between BF and HC and alcohol consumption was reported. In addition the amount of alcohol showed a linear correlation with HC. In males no relations among antropometric measures and alcohol consumption were found. Students with the highest nutritional competences consumed more alcohol than the others. In our cohort 14, 29% of males and 5, 56% of females were at risk of alcohol addiction, while binge-drinking was found in 17, 86% of males and 0% of females. CONCLUSIONS: Better nutritional knowledges are not enough to counteract the social aspects of drinking, and alternative ways of social entertainment should be proposed.