Eating habits of children and adolescents from rural regions depending on gender, education, and economic status of parents.
The proper lifestyle of a child, including proper eating habits, should be monitored to ensure proper physical and psychological development. This applies particularly to rural areas which are economically, socially and educationally backward. The study included 1,341 rural schoolchildren and adolescents aged 9-13 years (734 females, 607 males). The representative survey research was conducted in 2008, making use of an original survey questionnaire. The results showed that the majority of respondents eat improperly. 83.2% of them have regular breakfast, and 62.6% have regular light lunch. Most respondents do not eat more than 4 meals a day (usually 3-4). It is worrying that the consumption of sweets is high (34.9% of the surveyed group eat them regularly), whereas fruit and vegetable consumption is low. In this study, relationships between types of diet and such descriptive variables as gender, parents' educational status, and economic situation of the households are described. In families where the parents have a higher education and the household situation is good, the eating habits are much better. The list of poor dietary habits of pupils from rural schools includes skipping breakfast and/or light lunch, high consumption of sweets and low consumption of fruit and vegetables. There are correlations between improper dietary habits and gender of the children and adolescents, educational status of parents, economic situation of households, and housing conditions.
III Chair of Paediatrics, Department of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology, Medical University, Lublin, Poland.
Witold
W
Kołłątaj
Katarzyna
K
Sygit
Marian
M
Sygit
Irena Dorota
ID
Karwat
Barbara
B
Kołłątaj
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D017195:Adolescent Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D004034:Diet Surveys; D004435:Eating; D004522:Educational Status; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011044:Poland; D012424:Rural Population; D017678:Sex Distribution; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires