Adolescent eating behavior in the Secondary Medical School in Novi Sad and the Technical School in Subotica

Abstract

Introduction. Adolescence is the period when children, due to increased obligations at school, disrupt their usual lifestyle, they often skip family meals, and usually consume "fast food". The goal of the paper is to determine the eating habits of secondary school students, and to determine the difference in eating habits between boys and girls. Method. The research was conducted as a cross-sectional study during 2015/16 school year, in a medical school in Novi Sad and a technical school in Subotica. The research instrument was a part of questionnaire designed for the "Health status, health needs and utilization of health services in Serbia", which was anonymous and voluntary, filled out by 209 students (107 male and 102 female), aged 14-18 years. The data was analyzed by the statistical package SPSS. To determine the statistical significance and frequency in the consumption of daily meals, fruits, vegetables and sweets between girls and boys, we used the method of crossed tables and Pearson 2 test. Results. Regular breakfast had 51.2% of respondents, 34.4% had breakfast only several days a week, while 14.4% never had breakfast. Each day lunch had 68.9% of respondents, and 56% had each day dinner. Daily consumption of fruits was recorded in 20.1%, and vegetables by 14.4% of the tested adolescents. One third of them used to eat non-cereal plant foods only every 2-4 days. At least once or even several times a day sweets were consumed by 21.1% of the respondents. Conclusion. A relatively large percentage of the tested adolescent population in both schools had irregular breakfast and lunch, 4/5 students did not use fruit in their daily diet, however sweets all respondents used several times a day. Girls were more frequently recorded to avoid a meal, consumed more sweets, snacks and fizzy drinks, while boys preferred greasy foods.

A Cross-Sectional Survey of Salty Snack Consumption among Serbian Urban-Living Students and Their Contribution to Salt Intake

“…In our study the consumption frequency in urban-living students generally varied from once per weak to several times per week. This is consistent with the results from the northern part of Serbia [17] and north Italy, where the mean weekly consumption of all snacks and salty snacks among students was several servings/week [18]. The findings of the 2016 statistical survey for Europe were similar with the frequency of eating salty snacks at least once a week in 75% of general population in Spain and United Kingdom, and 48% in Germany [19].…”