TITLE:
Eating Habits of High School Students in the District of Bamako in the Context of Nutritional Transition
AUTHORS:
Mamadou Saïdou Bah, Lebem Togtoga, Abdourahmane Ndong, Papa Djibril Ndoye, Khadim Niang, Papa Ndiaye
KEYWORDS:
Eating Habits, Behaviors, Nutrition, High School Students, Bamako
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.14 No.10,
October
11,
2023
ABSTRACT: Introduction: Eating habits are consolidated
in early childhood and continue throughout life. Adolescence is a stage of
rapid growth linked to puberty affected by the nutritional transition. This
study aimed to evaluate the eating habits of high school students in the
district of Bamako. Methodology: The cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted from June 15 to July 4,
2023. The sample size was calculated with the StatCalc program of the Epi 7.2
software. Data was collected using a questionnaire on KoboCollect. Analyses
were performed using SPSS 26 software. Results: A total of 2400 high school students were surveyed.
The average age of high school students was 16.9 years ± 1.4. The median age
was 17, with extremes of 14 and 19. Of the high school students, 53.3% were
boys. The sex ratio (M/F) was 1.14. About 89.4% of high school students had a
Smartphone. Among high school students, 51.1% did not engage in
physical activity outside of high school. Rice was the cereal most consumed by
high school students (99.2%). Consumption of fish and seafood was very low (25.5%). Soft drinks were consumed on average 4.2 days/week. In
addition, 60.8% of high school students consumed energy drinks. Certain eating
behaviors were found in this study, such as nibbling (38.5%), eating in front
of screens (79.0%), and skipping meals (46.1%). Conclusion: The most consumed cereal by high school students
was rice. The consumption of ultra-processed products and sedentary leisure are
habits to be monitored in the context of the prevention of food-related
non-communicable diseases among high school students in the district of Bamako.