Awareness and Practice of Junk Foods among Adolescents in Secondary Level Students

Abstract

Introduction: Junk food consumption among adolescents has become a serious issue that may lead to harmful effects on health. Dietary patterns of people are shifting from homemade foods to junk foods. Therefore, this study was undertaken to assess the awareness and practice of junk foods among adolescents.
 Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among adolescents of secondary level students. A simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample and the sample size was 237. Data collection was done from April 15, 2019 to May 14, 2019. A set of semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse and interpret the findings.
 Results: The findings showed that more than three-fifth (67.9%) of adolescents had a moderate level of awareness about junk foods. Half (49.4%) of them consumed junk foods highly. All (100%) adolescents have consumed junk foods regularly whereas two-fifth (42.2%) replaced meals once a week with junk foods. Four-fifth (82.3%) of adolescents did not bring tiffin from home. There was no significant association between the awareness and practice of junk foods (p < 0.05).
 Conclusions: This study concludes that most of the adolescents possessed a moderate level of awareness of junk foods. Majority of them did not bring tiffin from their home. Around half of them consumed junk foods in their daily life. Majority of them were aware of junk foods, although they still consumed junk foods.

Cross sectional study on behavioral determinants associated with sugary foods and beverages and its corelates with body mass index among adolescents

“…27 This consistency might be the outcome of similar mindset of adolescents towards the processed foods. Level of knowledge was not found to be associated with the practice of sugary foods and drinks which is consistent with the findings of another study conducted in schools of Kathmandu by Paudel et al 30…”

“…27 The yields in this study were higher compared to those of other studies conducted by Upreti et al and Subedi et al in Chitwan where the adequate knowledge among adolescents were found to be 55.9% and 65.6% respectively. 28,29 However, this finding accord with another study done by Paudel et al 30 indicating higher number of respondents with adequate knowledge regarding health effects of processed foods including sugary items among comparable population which is obvious due to similarity in population and study settings. The finding is contrary to previous studies conducted in surrounding neighboring nations including India 31 , Vietnam and Thailand 32 with similar context where low level of adequate knowledge was seen among adolescents regarding processed foods and sugary beverages.…”

“…Knowledge level was not found to be associated with consumption status alike some previous studies. 30,33 No associations were seen between the socio-demographic characteristics and consumption status of Sugar Sweetened Beverages in a study conducted among school adolescents in Selangor, Malaysia. 36 Around one third of the respondent were consuming sugary foods and drinks due to influence of good taste in this study.…”

“…However these results reflect those of Paudel et al who also founded higher proportion of study participants consuming chocolates (72.6%) and cold drinks (52%) during the study. 30 A large proportion of adolescents were found to be consuming sugary beverages in Malaysia. 36 Consumption was seen to be associated with gender of adolescent, occupation of mother and father.…”

Physical Activity Levels And Junk Food Intake Among School Going Adolescents In A North Indian City

“…[19] A statistically significant association was found between insufficient physical activity and the unavailability of playing space. [15,16,20,21] It could be said that there might be various reasons for students not being physically active enough, and could include reasons like lack of designated space to play or safety of the place, academic pressure, lack of enough time to carry out such activities, etc.…”