Eating habits and food literacy: Study involving a sample of Portuguese adolescents

Adolescents tend to neglect food and their eating pattern is influenced by several factors. Adolescents’ health literacy substantiates their ability to respond to the growing demands of health, being linked to health promotion in several areas, including food. The goal of this work was to analyze th...

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Autores principales: Ferreira Manuela, Guiné Raquel P. F., Leitão Ana Lúcia, Duarte João, Andrade Joana, Amaral Odete
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Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: De Gruyter 2021
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/426ff8c38c91486b9ba723b72a06478c
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:426ff8c38c91486b9ba723b72a06478c2021-12-05T14:10:58ZEating habits and food literacy: Study involving a sample of Portuguese adolescents2391-953110.1515/opag-2021-0011https://doaj.org/article/426ff8c38c91486b9ba723b72a06478c2021-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1515/opag-2021-0011https://doaj.org/toc/2391-9531Adolescents tend to neglect food and their eating pattern is influenced by several factors. Adolescents’ health literacy substantiates their ability to respond to the growing demands of health, being linked to health promotion in several areas, including food. The goal of this work was to analyze the relationship between sociodemographic and contextual variables with secondary school students’ food literacy. A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study was carried out with a sample of 181 nonprobabilistic secondary school students, aged between 16 and 21 years (mean = 18.09 years ± 1.45), mostly female (58.0%), from 11th grade (35.4%), who are part of a secondary school in central Portugal. As a tool for data collection, the questionnaire of the project “Your PEL – Promote and Empower for Health Literacy in the young population” was used, aggregating three areas: eating behaviors, harmful consumptions and sexuality. The results showed that 58.6% of young people eat 4–5 meals a day, consume fast food weekly (79%) and eat soup (82.3%). Additionally, they eat fruit and vegetables on a daily basis (94.5 and 83.4%, respectively). The results further showed that 10th grade students have higher levels of health and food literacy. It was observed that both girls and boys are interested in receiving information regarding food, transmitted through social networks and by a communication application (84.5 and 73.5%, respectively), with significant differences (χ 2 = 4.768; p = 0.028). Adolescents face unique health challenges and a critical level of health literacy compromises their understanding of information about diet and future health. The results indicate that educational plans to empower adolescents in these areas, which integrate gender and age differences and sources of information as important variables to be considered, are pivotal for increasing levels of health and food literacy.Ferreira ManuelaGuiné Raquel P. F.Leitão Ana LúciaDuarte JoãoAndrade JoanaAmaral OdeteDe Gruyterarticlesecondary schoolfood informationeducationfast foodsocial networkAgricultureSAgriculture (General)S1-972ENOpen Agriculture, Vol 6, Iss 1, Pp 286-295 (2021)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic secondary school
food information
education
fast food
social network
Agriculture
S
Agriculture (General)
S1-972
spellingShingle secondary school
food information
education
fast food
social network
Agriculture
S
Agriculture (General)
S1-972
Ferreira Manuela
Guiné Raquel P. F.
Leitão Ana Lúcia
Duarte João
Andrade Joana
Amaral Odete
Eating habits and food literacy: Study involving a sample of Portuguese adolescents
description Adolescents tend to neglect food and their eating pattern is influenced by several factors. Adolescents’ health literacy substantiates their ability to respond to the growing demands of health, being linked to health promotion in several areas, including food. The goal of this work was to analyze the relationship between sociodemographic and contextual variables with secondary school students’ food literacy. A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study was carried out with a sample of 181 nonprobabilistic secondary school students, aged between 16 and 21 years (mean = 18.09 years ± 1.45), mostly female (58.0%), from 11th grade (35.4%), who are part of a secondary school in central Portugal. As a tool for data collection, the questionnaire of the project “Your PEL – Promote and Empower for Health Literacy in the young population” was used, aggregating three areas: eating behaviors, harmful consumptions and sexuality. The results showed that 58.6% of young people eat 4–5 meals a day, consume fast food weekly (79%) and eat soup (82.3%). Additionally, they eat fruit and vegetables on a daily basis (94.5 and 83.4%, respectively). The results further showed that 10th grade students have higher levels of health and food literacy. It was observed that both girls and boys are interested in receiving information regarding food, transmitted through social networks and by a communication application (84.5 and 73.5%, respectively), with significant differences (χ 2 = 4.768; p = 0.028). Adolescents face unique health challenges and a critical level of health literacy compromises their understanding of information about diet and future health. The results indicate that educational plans to empower adolescents in these areas, which integrate gender and age differences and sources of information as important variables to be considered, are pivotal for increasing levels of health and food literacy.
format article
author Ferreira Manuela
Guiné Raquel P. F.
Leitão Ana Lúcia
Duarte João
Andrade Joana
Amaral Odete
author_facet Ferreira Manuela
Guiné Raquel P. F.
Leitão Ana Lúcia
Duarte João
Andrade Joana
Amaral Odete
author_sort Ferreira Manuela
title Eating habits and food literacy: Study involving a sample of Portuguese adolescents
title_short Eating habits and food literacy: Study involving a sample of Portuguese adolescents
title_full Eating habits and food literacy: Study involving a sample of Portuguese adolescents
title_fullStr Eating habits and food literacy: Study involving a sample of Portuguese adolescents
title_full_unstemmed Eating habits and food literacy: Study involving a sample of Portuguese adolescents
title_sort eating habits and food literacy: study involving a sample of portuguese adolescents
publisher De Gruyter
publishDate 2021
url https://doaj.org/article/426ff8c38c91486b9ba723b72a06478c
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