ISSN-L: 2223-9553, ISSN: 2223-9944 Vol. 4 No. 1 January 2013 Academic Research International         UNIVERSITY FEMALE UNDERGRADUATES’ LEVEL OF AWARENESS OF MID-AGE MORPHOLOGIC EXPANSION AMONG NIGERIAN FEMALE ADULT POPULATION Elvis I. Agbonlahor 1 , E.O. Agwubike, Samuel A. Olikiabor Department of Health, Environmental and Human Kinetics, University of Benin, Benin City, NIGERIA. 1 elvisagbon@yahoo.com ABSTRACT The paper assessed undergraduate female students’ level of awareness about Nigerian women’s mid-age morphologic expansion. A three-stage stratified cluster sampling was adopted in selecting 2,272 students as the sample from six tertiary institutions in South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The students’ ages ranged from 17-38 years (mean age=24 years; SD=6.2). A validated questionnaire was the instrument for the data collection. The results show that 2,160 students attested to their level of awareness while only 112 of them showed levels of unawareness of Nigeria women’s mid-age morphologic expansion. The roles of diet psychological orientation and activity patterns in eight gains by Nigerian women at mid0age were substantially reported as the causative factors. It is expected therefore that health care provider in Nigeria would create an enabling environment that encourages the attainment and maintenance of women’s mid-age healthy weight, healthful dietary patterns, and regular physical activity. Keywords: Female undergraduate students, awareness level, mid-age, morphologic expansion, Nigerian female adults. INTRODUCTION Weight gain has become a great public health issue the world over. In spite of our ever- increasing knowledge of the health risks of overweight and obesity, people in both developed and developing countries are getting fatter. In the view of McArdle, Katch & Katch (1991) weight gain is brought about by unbalancing the body’s energy balance in favour of a greater caloric intake. However, some overweight experiences may result from a person’s muscular hypertrophy as a consequence of training and body conditioning. In Nigeria, much of weight gains is often noticed in mid-age women whose age bracket ranges between 40 years and old age (Salami, Uko-Aviomoh & Nwaba, 2006). Salami et al. (2006) asserted that Nigerian female adult population is experiencing an epidemic of mid-age spread, which they claimed is associated to the following factors, among others: 1. Lack of exercise 2. Diet basically based on carbohydrates, loaded with calories. 3. Increased patronage of junk foods. 4. Poverty 5. Family eating habits 6. Wrong meal allocation at the family level 7. Poor time allocation for eating (p.83) Mid age morphologic expansion or spread appears to the uniformed to be a natural phenomenon whose occurrence tends to be inevitable among women. The outlined factors