Relationship of BMI with Junk Food, sleep pattern, exam performance and awareness about its ill health effects in healthy teenagers

Abstract

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the relationship of body mass index of healthy teenafers with junk food, sleep pattern, exam performance and awareness about its ill effects. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted from March to June 2017 at University Medical and Dental College, University of Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan, and comprised subjects aged 13-19. Data was collected using face-to-face interviews, getting the examnation results from respective educational insititutions and calculating the body mass index, Data was abalysed using SPSS 22. Results: Of the 226 subjects, 96(42.5%) were boys with a mean age of 15.68 ± 1.83 years, and 130(57.5%) were girls with a mean age of 17.00±1.74 years. Based on body mass index, 35(15.5%) subjects were underweight, 88(39%) were normal, 28(12.4%) overweight, 56(24.7%) pre-obese and 19(8.4%) were obese. The independent predictors of body mass index were higher consumption of soft drinks in males and higher consumption of soft drinks and salt in females (p<0.05). Conclusion: Teenagers were found ot be well aware of the ill effects of junk food, but they were found to be happy with their dietary habits and unwilling to change it. Key Words: Teenagers, BMI, Food habits, Fast food, Soft drinks. Continuous...