Dietary Patterns and Association with Overweight and Obesity among Adolescents of Rewa City, Madhya Pradesh

Abstract

Introduction: Prevalence of overweight/obesity has been increasing around the world. Obesity among adolescents is associated with both immediate and long-term health complications. Unhealthy dietary habits are the major modifiable risk factors which promote weight gain. Dietary patterns analysis may provide insight about effect of diet on overweight/obesity. Aim: To assess the association of overweight and obesity with dietary patterns among adolescents of Rewa city, MP (Madhya Pradesh). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional community-based study was conducted among 744 adolescents of 10-19 year age group of Rewa city, MP from January 2018 to December 2018 with multistage random sampling procedure. Information was collected for socio-demographic variables and pattern of dietary habits and standardised anthropometric measurement were taken following STEPS manual. Data was collected through house-to-house visits. Data was interpreted using descriptive statistics with SPSS version 20.00 software. Chi-square test was used to find out the association of dietary with overweight and obesity. The p-value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: In the present study prevalence of over-weight and obesity showed positive association with increased frequency of consumption of carbonated soft drinks (p=0.006), energy dense food intake (p=0.009), non-vegetarian food (p=0.04), less consumption of fruits and vegetables (p=0.005 and 0.02, respectively). In summation, the dietary behaviour showed a significant association with overweight or obesity. The study participants who had a poor dietary pattern showed a greater prevalence of overweight and obesity. Conclusion: The present findings suggest that increased intake of carbonated soft drinks, junk food (like pizza, samosa), sweets/ candies/chewing gums/chocolates, potato chips/popcorns/ packed food are highly significant in increasing the prevalence of overweight and obesity. So healthy dietary pattern and limited intake of unhealthy dietary pattern should be followed and before this widely neglected problem acquires gigantic proportions, more research and timely intervention are much needed.

Keywords

• community based
• prevalence
• subject