Food practices and nutritional coping strategies of university students during Sri Lanka's economic crisis: An online survey.

BackgroundThe recent global economic crisis has doubled poverty levels, yet its impact on university students' dietary behaviours remains underexplored.ObjectiveTo investigate the food practices and nutritional coping strategies employed by university students during the prevailing economic crisis in Sri Lanka.MethodsAn online-based cross-sectional survey was conducted with 206 students from a selected university. The questionnaire contained demographic information, a seven-day dietary recall, financial characteristics, and nutritional coping strategies among university students. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 30.0 to explore the association between selected economic factors and food choice outcomes among the participants.ResultsThe sample consisted of 52.9% females, with the majority of participants falling within the 23-25-year age group. A significant portion (64.6%) reported a reduction in household income over the past three months, and 84.0% had adopted cost-cutting strategies to manage household finances. Notably, 93.7% of students had reduced their university-related expenses, including food (66.5%). Nutritional coping strategies included replacing main meals with low-cost snacks (84.5%) and switching to bakery items (53.4%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that students who reduced spending on university-related expenses were 2.5 times more likely to consume bakery items (odds ratio (OR) = 2.21; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.275-6.61; p < 0.05), while the odds of consuming low-cost starchy food were 2.3 (OR = 2.30; 95% CI: 1.14-4.79; p < 0.05) among those who reduced household income.ConclusionThis study demonstrates that a reduction in household income and adjustments to household and university-related expenditures during Sri Lanka's economic crisis were associated with less favourable dietary patterns among undergraduate students and with the use of nutritional coping strategies that may compromise dietary adequacy.