Relationship of Frequent Hoteling with Gastrointestinal Disturbances Among Students of the University of Lahore

Abstract: a contaminated unhealthy food leads to different gastrointestinal disorders like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, heartburn, abdominal pain, food poisoning and other food borne illnesses. frequent hoteling in restaurants and eating street food are major causes of gastrointestinal disorders among people. infectious organisms include bacteria, viruses and parasites or their toxins. Objective: To determine the relationship of frequent hoteling with gastrointestinal disturbances among students of The University of Lahore. Methods: A cross sectional study including 377 students were selected from the University of Lahore Defence road main campus Lahore by simple random sampling technique in the duration of 9 months. The relationship between variables was observed by chi-square test statistics. Results: Out of 377 students, the frequency of students who went for hoteling once a week, twice a week, thrice a week or whole week were 20%,33%, 27% and 18% respectively. Among them 6%,29%,23% and 16% had vomiting because of hoteling once, twice, thrice and for a whole week. 10% suffered abdominal pain by eating outside once a week, 28% for twice a week, 26% thrice a week and 18% for a whole week.5% had food poisoning by eating outside unhygienic food,19%,18% and 12% for twice, thrice and a whole week respectively. Conclusion: This study concluded that there was a strong association between frequent hoteling and gastrointestinal disturbances irrespective to number of visits per week. Keywords: Gastrointestinal Disorders, Restaurant food, Street food, Food borne illnesses, Personal hygiene