Background The transition of young people from high school to university is associated with increased autonomy, including dietary choices. However, data on this issue is scarce in the current study area.

Purpose This study aimed to identify dietary practices and associated factors among university students at Debre Berhan University, Ethiopia, 2023.

Methods An institution-based cross-sectional study was carried out to select 771 students using a cluster sampling technique. Then, data were collected, loaded into Epi data version 3.1 and analyzed via SPSS version 20.0. Descriptive analyses as well as bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the strength of the associations between the variables. Adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals and p-values < 0.05 were used to assess the level of significance.

Results In this study, the prevalence of poor dietary practice was high at 77.3% at 95% CI (74.4-80.2). After adjusting the variables using logistic regression, variables such as using university meal service [AOR = 0.07, 95% CI (0.02, 0.22)], monthly pocket money < 500 birr [AOR = 0.29, 95% CI (0.13, 0.64), university cafe as a main source of food [AOR = 0.02, 95% CI (0.01, 0.05)], and 1-2 times eating of food out of student cafeteria [AOR = 0.20, 95% CI (0.06-0.68)] were associated with poor dietary practice.

Conclusion Poor dietary practice among university students was high in this study. Therefore, the government and other responsible bodies should try to increase institutional-based nutritional education, create awareness, and improve campus meals containing different food groups.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study did not receive any funding

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

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The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

Ethical approval was issued by Ethical Clearance Review Board of the Asrat Woldeyes Health Science Campus, Debre Berhan University (IRB Protocol number IRB-143). In accordance with the Helsinki Declaration guidelines and regulations, written informed consent was obtained from all subjects who participated in this study. In addition, all necessary data were collected and registered based on the unique codes of the study participants and names were not taken throughout the study. Hence, all the information was kept confidential.

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All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors