Social support and dairy products intake among adolescents: a study from Iran.
BACKGROUND
Adequate daily milk and dairy products intake seems to an important for adolescents' health. This study aimed to identify the high-risk group adolescents who did not meet the recommended daily serving milk and dairy products and indeed to find out associated factors relating to their nutrition behaviors.


METHODS
This cross sectional study was carried out on 7th grade students, in Tabriz, East Azerbaijan province, Iran. An anonymous self-administrated questionnaire including items on perceived social support, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors was administered. In addition a valid food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) measuring daily milk products serving intake as a main outcome measure was completed for each respondent. Logistic regression analysis was applied to examine the association between milk and dairy products consumption and independents variables.


RESULTS
In all 402 students (51.5 % female) participated in the study. The mean age of students was 12.9 (SD = 0.49) years. The average daily intake of milk and dairy products was 1.64 (SD = 0.78) servings per day. Overall 14.2 % of adolescents (18.8 % of girls, and 9.2 % of boys, p = 0.006) reported consumption of the recommended daily milk and dairy products serving per day. The results indicated that gender boys (OR for boys = 2.41, 95 % CI = 1.25-4.67), mother age (OR for age group 40-55 years = 2.52, 95 % CI = 1.18-5.38), poor perceived emotional family support, (OR = 1.10, 95 % CI = 1.05-3.61), and poor perceived practical family support (OR = 2.04, 95 % CI = 1.18-4.17) were the most significant contributing factors to low level milk and dairy products intake in adolescents.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings indicated that adolescents did not take the recommended daily amount of milk and dairy products and this appeared to be strongly related to low perceived family support. To achieve the recommended daily milk and dairy products serving consumption, family involvements in any programs that specifically address emotional and practical support for promoting daily milk and dairy products intake among adolescents are suggested.
Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Health, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. shokrvash@tbzmed.ac.ir.
Behjat
B
Shokrvash
Department of Health Education, School of Public Health, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran. Leilisalehi83@yahoo.com.
Leili
L
Salehi
Department of nutrition and food science, Danshvaran University, Bakmisheh, Ellaheie, Tabriz, Iran. maral_ha@yahoo.com.
Maral
M
Hariri Akbari
Department of Community Nutrition, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. ebrahimimamagani@tbzmed.ac.ir.
Mehrangiz
M
Ebrahimi Mamagani
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. nedjatsan@tums.ac.ir.|Knowledge Utilization Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. nedjatsan@tums.ac.ir.
Saharnaz
S
Nedjat
Department of Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Health, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. M_asghari862@yahoo.com.
Mohammad
M
Asghari
Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. majlesif@sina.tums.ac.ir.
Freshteh
F
Majlessi
Mental Health Research Group, Health Metrics Research Center, Iranian Institute for Health Sciences Research, ACECR, Tehran, Iran. montazeri@acecr.ac.ir.|Faculty of Humanity Sciences, University of Science & Culture, ACECR, Tehran, Iran. montazeri@acecr.ac.ir.
Ali
A
Montazeri
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D017195:Adolescent Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D008892:Milk / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires