The Correlation Between the Type, Quantity, and Frequency of Eating with Defecation Patterns and Muslim Students’ Indigestion During Ramadan Fasting Anisa Ramadani, Laily Hidayati and Praba Diyan Rachmawati Faculty of Nursing Universitas Airlangga, Kampus C Mulyorejo, Surabaya, Indonesia Keywords: Diet, Defecation Pattern, Indigestion. Abstract: Introduction: Diet is a description of the regulation of the quantity, frequency, and type of food consumed daily by a person. The purpose of this study was to analyze the correlation between the type, quantity, and frequency of eating and the bowel pattern and digestive complaints of Muslim students during Ramadan fasting. Method: the research design used a cross-sectional study approach with type, number, and frequency of feeding as the independent variables and bowel pattern and indigestion as the dependent variables. The sample comprised of 107 college students. The data were collected by questionnaires and analyzed using the Chi-square test. Results and Analysis: The statistics test regarding food typed and defecation patterns obtained a p value of 0.000 at α≤0.05. The quantity of food and defecation patterns obtained a p value of 0.577. The frequency of eating with defecation pattern obtained ap value of 0.778. The food types with indigestion obtained a p value of 0.015. The quantity of food and indigestion obtained a p value of 0.339. The frequency of eating with indigestion obtained a p value of 0.368. Discussion and Conclusion: There was a correlation between the type of food and bowel patterns and indigestion. There was no correlation between the number of meals and the frequency of eating with bowel patterns, and the same applied to the number of meals and the frequency of eating with digestive complaints. 1 INTRODUCTION Students are at an adult age during which food consumed is very influential for the body’s health. The body still needs the same nutritional intake both when fasting and not fasting. However, from the results of interviews, it is evident that students often consume spicy foods, foods containing sugar and salt, and fatty foods when fasting during Ramadan. Students rarely consume fruit during suhoor. Students also often experience diarrhea and complain about pain and nausea in their stomachs. Research by Riawanti (2008) found that the average consumption of nutrition by students (9.8%) decreased during Ramadan, including energy, protein, fat, iron, vitamin C, and vitamin B. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009 discovered the percentage of gastritis occurrence in Indonesia was 40.8%. The occurrence of gastritis in some areas of Indonesia is quite high with the prevalence of 274,396 cases from 238,452,952 inhabitants. In Surabaya, the occurrence of gastritis is 31.2% (Maulidiyah, 2006), whereas the prevalence of peptic ulcers (known as ulcer disease). Indonesia was found in 6%–15%, especially at the age of 20–50 years (Suyono 2001). One way to overcome eating behaviors is to change the perception of individuals; this suggestion is based on the theory of the Health Belief Model (HBM), in which individuals perceive the vulnerability and seriousness of diseases. Such perceptions simultaneously increase individuals’ awareness of the fact that a healthy diet can reduce symptoms of indigestion, hence prompting a change in the behavior of a person regarding their diet. 2 METHODS This research design used a correlational research design with a cross-sectional approach. This research was conducted at a university in Surabaya city during Ramadan. The population in this research were 121 6th semester Muslim students and 746 Ramadani, A., Hidayati, L. and Rachmawati, P. The Correlation Between the Type, Quantity, and Frequency of Eating with Defecation Patterns and Muslim Students’ Indigestion During Ramadan Fasting. DOI: 10.5220/0008332207460751 In Proceedings of the 9th International Nursing Conference (INC 2018), pages 746-751 ISBN: 978-989-758-336-0 Copyright c  2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved