Breakfast as the first meal of the day is one of the most skipped meals by adolescent students. Several research studies indicated that unhealthy food consumption and breakfast skipping contribute to low glyceamic level, poor cognition and academic performance as well as increasing prevalence of poor nutritional status among children (5-19) years. This study determined prevalence of breakfast and food consumption pattern and nutritional status of students in public secondary schools. This study's design was cross-sectional and multistage random sampling was used to select 515 participants, (343 girls and 172 boys) from 8 public secondary schools in study area. Self-reported 24 h recall dietary questionnaire was used to collect data on breakfast and food consumption of participants. Digital bathroom scale and stadiometer were used to collect data on weight and height of participants. Data were cleaned, coded and analyzed using (SPSS Version 20) and WHO anthroplus software. Results indicated that 54.0% o f participants were (15/6-18/5) years/months, 77% consumed breakfast daily and 52% added (1-2) teaspoons of sugar daily to beverages. Furthermore, participants mostly consumed refined carbohydrates such as doughnut and biscuits (2.36±0.99 times per week), while mostly consumed fat and oil such as vegetable oil in soup (2.54±0.96 times per week), mostly consumed snacks such as fish pies and fish rolls (2.71±0.87 times per week), while mostly consumed protein such as eggs (2.15±0.69 times per week) and mostly consumed fruit such as pawpaw (2.56±0.89 times per week). Overall Nutritional status indicated that underweight was 29.1%, overweight was 4.7%, obesity was 0.2 and 66.0% were of normal weight. Furthermore, Nutritional status for both boys and girls indicated that underweight was (47.7 and 19.8%), overweight was (0.6 and 6.7%), obese was (0 and 0.3%) and normal weight was (51.7 and 73.2%), respectively. Relationship between food consumption and nutritional status of participants was positive but not significant (r = 0.012, p = 0.785). Analysis of variance showed positive significant relationship (p = 0.001) between food consumption and nutritional status. Despite that majority of participants consumed breakfast, the participants low frequency of food consumption is still of concern and this may influence their nutritional status negatively. Parents and other stakeholders should encourage breakfast consumption by participants as well as the consumption of nutritious food in order to meet their daily dietary allowance.
Adolescents and childhood overweight and obesity have been observed as one of the serious public health challenges of the 21st century by World Health Organization. This study identified the determinants of overweight and obesity among adolescents in public schools in Kwara state, Nigeria.
Multistage and stratified sampling techniques were used to randomly select 515 participants which comprised of 343 girls and 172 boys aged (10-19) years in 8 public secondary schools from 32 schools in 2 zonal inspectorate divisions. Data was collected using modified Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A). Digital bathroom scale and stadiometer were used to measure weight and height of the participants. (SPSS, Version 20) and WHO Anthroplus were used to analyze the data
Overall prevalence of overweight is (4.7%) and obesity (0.2%), while prevalence for male and female overweight (0.6%, 6.7%) and obesity (0%, 0.3%) respectively. Calculated mean BMI for age of the participants was (19.72± 2.62) kg/m2. Overweight and obesity were positive but weakly correlated to food consumption (FC) of participants (r= 0.012), however the relationship was significant (p< 0.001). Furthermore, overweight and obesity were negatively correlated with no significance to the physical activity level of participants (r=-0.105).
Participants need to consume more of low calorie foods such as fruits and vegetables and should also engage in more physical activity practices such as aerobics to lower overweight and obesity prevalence.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.