Evaluation of dietary habits and levels of physical activity in school-adolescents: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Diet and physical activity are the two main modifiable risk factors to prevent and/ or control overweight and obesity in pediatric stages. The objective of this study was to assess the lifestyles (diet and physical activity), and its association with Body Mass Index (BMI) among adolescents. Material and Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional study on lifestyles among adolescents. We collected sociodemographic information, clinical data, anthropometric measures, diet and physical activity habits. A Multiple Linear Regression was used to assess the association between lifestyles and BMI, adjusted by potential confounders: sex, age, hours of sleep and smoking. Results: The population of this study consists of 129 teenagers (51.94% male). Their mean age is of 14.88. The excess weight prevalence was of 32.80%, and it was greater in the male portion of the population than its female counterpart. 59.70% of the adolescents were confirmed to follow an appropriate diet. 71.10% follow the WHO recommendations related to physical activities. In this case, the male portion of the population proved to be more physically active than the female counterpart. The adolescents with an excess weight obtained a lower punctuation with regard to the quality of their diet and turned out to engage in less physical activities than those presenting a normal weight. Moreover, a higher punctuation in the quality of diet (p-value=0.013), number of sleep hours (p-value=0.032) and being female (p-value<0.001), decrease the BMI. Conclusions: We observed a high prevalence of adolescents with excess weight and a lower quality diet as well as lower levels of physical activity. Finally, we also identified an association between the lifestyle and BMI among adolescents.