Cent Eur J Nurs Midw 2013, 4(1):506-512

Dietary habits of adolescents in the last year of secondary school

Miroslava Potočiarová, Michaela Miertová^*

Department of Nursing, Jessenius Medical Faculty in Martin, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia

Aim: The purpose of the presented study was to identify dietary habits of adolescents in the last year of secondary schools.

Methods: A questionnaire was used to collect empirical data. The sample comprised 110 adolescent respondents from two secondary schools in the Čadca District (Žilina Region, Slovak Republic).

Results: The results suggest that adolescents have irregular eating patterns. Over a period of 7 days, only a small percentage of students ate regular meals, with 22% having breakfast, 52% having lunch and 38% having dinner. Ninety-one percent of them had snacks. Most frequently, they had lunch in the afternoon and dinner after 8 p.m. More than a quarter of students ate sweets and fruit every day. In a total of 35% of adolescents, the daily fluid intake was between 0.5 and 1 liter of mostly tea, unflavored mineral water and sweetened cola drinks.

Conclusion: Adolescents' dietary habits have an impact on their physical and mental health. Irregular meals, not eating snacks, insufficient fluid and fruit intake during the day, excessive sweet consumption along with a sedentary lifestyle are characteristic for not only this age group. This is a reason for interventions to prevent unhealthy eating habits, e.g. through education which may be provided by nurses as well.

Keywords: adolescent, dietary habit, snack, fluid intake, sweet consumption, fruit consumption

Published: March 30, 2013  Show citation