Environmental variations of nutritional mistakes among Polish school-age adolescents from urban and rural areas

Abstract

Introduction and objective. Many studies have indicated numerous nutrition mistakes among school-aged children and adolescents in both urban and rural environments. The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional habits of the Polish population, consisting of 7,974 individuals aged 12-17, from rural and urban environments, as well as to identify environmental variations of these habits and to verify the existing information on the incorrect nutrition of school-age children and adolescents. Materials and method. The research covered a group of 7,974 respondents-school-age adolescents with a similar age structure (12-17 years). The study on subjects from secondary school grades 1-3 was conducted in randomly selected schools from 2 random Polish provinces; 5 counties were randomly selected, followed by a choice of 2 communes: one rural and one urban. The research technique was a self-designed survey questionnaire. The obtained results were subjected to statistical analysis using the Pearson Chi 2 and V Cramer test. Results. The research revealed environment-based differences in subjects' nutrition. Breakfast was consumed daily by a statistically significantly fewer subjects from the rural environment (36.31%) than from the urban areas (51.32%); second breakfast was consumed by an insignificantly smaller proportion of respondents from the urban environment (40.00%) than from the rural one (46.00%); dinner was eaten daily by 86.00% of urban subjects and 82.00% of rural respondents; afternoon tea and supper were eaten rarely by respondents from both environments. The diet of respondents was dominated by anti-health behaviours. Conclusions. Most of the respondents displayed incorrect nutritional behaviours. Nutritional mistakes occurred among respondents from both rural and urban environments, with the predominance of the rural areas.

Food Consumed by High School Students during the School Day

“…Our results agree with those of other studies that high school students eat some breakfast at home [27,29,39,40] and that a large portion of them eat a poor breakfast [15,30,33,39]. Moreover, as in our study, age and sex are predictive factors of omitting breakfast or having breakfast at home before going to the SEHS.…”

“…Most of the studies reviewed were based on the evaluation of breakfast [13,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30], on the analysis of adolescents' daily consumption or on overall eating habits [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] and on the relationship of diet with physical activity [39][40][41][42] or with school performance [15,[43][44][45]. We also found some educational interventions [42,[46][47][48][49][50][51][52] and studies that focused on adherence to the Mediterranean diet [53,54].…”

Urban and rural differences in frequency of fruit, vegetable, and soft drink consumption among 6–9‐year‐old children from 19 countries from the WHO European region

“…Studies in Greenlandic or Polish adolescents observed that rural adolescents ate less fruit compared to urban adolescents. 16,17 On the other hand, rural Indonesian 10-18-year-old males consumed more fruits and vegetables compared with urban males and soft drinks were consumed less by both rural males and females compared to their urban peers. 18 For schoolaged children, a narrative review on the diet in rural versus urban children in the United States only found few studies that investigated this topic.…”

“…11 Evidence available on the difference between eating habits in urban and rural areas in adolescents and school-aged children is scarce and inconsistent. Among adolescents, several studies showed no differences by urbanization for fruit, [13][14][15] vegetable, [13][14][15][16] or soft drink 15,16 consumption. Studies in Greenlandic or Polish adolescents observed that rural adolescents ate less fruit compared to urban adolescents.…”

“…Among adolescents, several studies showed no differences by urbanization for fruit, 13–15 vegetable, 13–16 or soft drink 15,16 consumption. Studies in Greenlandic or Polish adolescents observed that rural adolescents ate less fruit compared to urban adolescents 16,17 . On the other hand, rural Indonesian 10–18‐year‐old males consumed more fruits and vegetables compared with urban males and soft drinks were consumed less by both rural males and females compared to their urban peers 18 .…”