Introduction: Proper nutrition and physical activity are very important elements in the proper functioning and development of children. The lack of daily, systematic physical effort in younger and younger age groups is a public health problem. Purpose: To evaluate the nutrition and physical activity of children attending primary school. Materials and methods: The study was conducted among 707 pupils form randomly selected elementary schools using the authors’ own questionnaire in the school year 2013/2014. The questionnaire included questions on selected dietary habits and physical activity as well as the socio-economic conditions of the families. Results: Among the studied children, 88.6% consumed 4 or 5 meals a day. There was a statistically significant relationship between the number of meals consumed and the age of the children. Breakfast was consumed by 86.4% of children, more often residents of the city than the village (88.0% vs. 81.7%, p <0.05). Daily consum-ption of second breakfast was declared by 71.5% of boys and 74.2% of girls. The vast majority of the studied students (86.8%) have always taken part in physical education classes. Outdoor leisure time was declared by 75% of the surveyed children. Rural students showed greater involvement in outdoor activities than students from the city (86.1% vs. 70.2%, p <0.001). A total of 62.2% of boys and 51.8% of girls (p <0.05) participated in sports activities. Conclusions: Inappropriate nutrition and lack of physical activity affected both girls and boys, and the abnormalities were dependent on where they lived and were age-related.
Introduction: Nutrition is one of the most essential factors conditioning normal human growth and development. Nutritional errors can be the basis for the emergence and development of obesity, hypertension, atherosclerosis, osteoporosis or postural defects. Purpose: The study aimed to learn about the dietary habits of urban high-school youth. Materials and methods: The study was conducted using the original questionnaire in 2013 and covered 200 students of randomly selected high schools. Results: Among the subjects, 70.8% consumed 4 or 5 meals during the day. The boys have eaten five meals significantly more often during the day than girls. The first breakfast was consumed by 76.5% of students and the second breakfast with 69.7%. Of the subjects, 80% indicated the eating between meals. The girls preferred sweets, fruit, and sandwiches, and the boys had sandwiches, sweets, and dairy drinks. The highest percentage of the examined youth ate sweets 3-4 times a week (41.6% girls and 35.6% boys). The respondents who consumed fast food once a week constituted of 60.9% of girls and 48.7% of boys. The girls consumed sweetened drinks most often once a week, and boys 3-4 times a week. Conclusions: Nutritional errors of adolescents consisted of irregular consumption of meals, late time of the last meal before bedtime, consumption of a large number of sweet and spicy snacks and sweetened beverages were found. Wrong nutrition concerned both girls and boys
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