Nutritional status and food pattern of adolescents
ISSN: 0034-6659
Article publication date: 7 September 2018
Issue publication date: 10 September 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate anthropometric data, body composition and food intake of teenagers.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper involves a cross-sectional study with 132 teenagers aged 15 to 19 years old from a public school of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Anthropometric measurements, body composition, food intake and sport practice were obtained. The authors performed Student’s t-test, X2 or Fisher’s exact tests and Pearson’s correlation to evaluate anthropometric variables, nutritional status and sport practice.
Findings
Regarding the nutritional status, 81.8 per cent of the teenagers were of normal weight, 10.6 per cent were overweight and 7.6 per cent were obese. Female teenagers had higher values of body fat analyzed by skinfold thickness, fat mass, fat mass index and body fat percentage, while male had higher lean mass evaluated by fat-free mass and fat-free mass index. For both genders, it was observed that there was low intake of fruits and vegetables and daily intake of sweets, soda, salt snacks and fast food like sandwiches and pizza. Only 54.5 per cent of teenagers reported performing physical exercise and there was association between sedentary lifestyle with higher intake of sweets and soft drink.
Originality/value
This paper summarized several methods to assess nutritional status and body composition of teenagers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq).
Conflicts of interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Citation
Previato, H.D.R.d.A. and Behrens, J.H. (2018), "Nutritional status and food pattern of adolescents", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 48 No. 5, pp. 846-855. https://doi.org/10.1108/NFS-05-2018-0130
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited