Eating habits among school children attending An Duong Secondary school in An Duong district, Hai Phong, in 2019

Abstract

A cross - sectional descriptive study was carried among school aged children of An Duong Secondary School, An Duong district, Hai Phong in 2019 to describe eating habits. The results showed that the percentage of students who did not eat fruits and vegetables daily were 26.5% and 21.3% respectively, the percentage of students who ate fried/fried food, drank soft drinks/carbonated beverages daily accounted for 45.4 % and 21.7%, respectively. Female students ate more vegetables than male students, on the contrary, male students ate more fried/fried food, drank soft drinks/ carbonated beverages than female students. The percentage of students who did not eat fruits and vegetables was highest in grade 6 students
(17.5% and 19.4%, respectively), the rate in higher grade students was significantly lower. There was a relationship between the habits of eating vegetables, fruits and gender, education level. Female students were 0.52 times lower risk of eating less vegetables than male students (95% CI = 0.35 – 0.76). Grade 6 students were 3.19 times more likely to eat less vegetables than grade 9 students (95% CI: 1.84 - 5.53).
It is necessary to increase communication and education on practice of healthy eating habits for students, especially focusing on the habit of eating vegetables and fruits.