Factors associated with junk food consumption among urban school students in Kathmandu district of Nepal

Abstract

With changes in peoples lifestyle, food consumption patterns in Nepal has tremendously shifted from consuming traditional healthy food to unhealthy fast food, especially high junk food consumption among adolescent students. The adverse effects of junk food on teenagers physical and psychological health are both evident. For this study, the factors associated with junk food consumption among teenage students in grade 6, 7 and 8 in urban schools were investigated. The cross-sectional analytical study was conducted from March to April 2018 with a sample of 22 schools (public and private) among 440 students in grade 6, 7, and 8 age 10-18 years (mean=13.12 years, SD=1.3). The participants were selected using simple random sampling assigning inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data were collected through individual face-to-face interview using validated questionnaire. The data were analyzed using chi-square and multiple logistic regression to find out the association between independent variables and junk food consumption. The results showed that the frequency of junk food consumption was at a high level 11.8% and 88.2% was at a low level with cutoff point of P 85 as indicated. A total of 6 variables were significantly associated after performing bivariate analysis. After the adjustment, a total of 3 variables were associated in full model using multiple logistic regression. The final model concluded that high daily allowance/pocket money of student (AOR=2.514, 95%CI, 1.363-4.3636), high influence from parents (AOR=2.697, 95%CI, 1.465-4963), and higher peer influence (AOR=3.121, 95% CI, 1.406-6.931) were the strong predictors of higher junk food consumption. In conclusion, it can be identified that school and home environments were the major influencing factors for students' high junk food consumption. The parents and school authority should be aware of the amount of the daily allowance that adolescents use for buying junk foods. In addition, parents as well as student's friends should be cognizant of the negative effects of junk foods. Therefore, parents and school authority should cooperate in implementing health promotion programs and campaigns to reduce junk food consumption among school age adolescents.