Pattern of Junk Food Consumption and its Relationship with Body Mass Index, with a view to Develop and Evaluate the Effectiveness of Information Booklet on ‘Harmful Effects of Junk Food’ among Adolescents

 

Ms. Khushpreet Kaur^1*, Mrs. Sunita Patney², Dr. R.G. Mathur³

¹Nursing Demonstrator, State Institute of  Nursing and Paramedical Sciences, Badal, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Punjab.

²Lecturer and Coordinator, Department of Continuing Education, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur College of Nursing, New Delhi.

³Lecturer, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur College of Nursing, New Delhi.

 

ABSTRACT:

Adolescent fitness requires well balanced diet but their unhealthy food preferences like consumption of junk food leads to various health concerns. A two phased research was conducted in which phase I including descriptive survey to assess relationship of pattern junk food consumption with body mass index among adolescents and phase II included pre- experimental one group pre-test post-test design to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of information booklet on ‘Harmful effects of junk food’ among adolescents. Data was obtained from 200 adolescents in Phase-I and 56 adolescents in Phase-II. Simple random sampling technique and Total enumeration sampling technique was adopted for Phase-I and Phase-II respectively. The data were collected with the help of standard weighing machine and height scale, Junk food consumption scale and Structured knowledge questionnaire. CDC-2000 growth charts for children and adolescents aged 2-20 years were used to classify adolescents overweight and obese. More than half of the adolescents had moderate level of junk food consumption pattern where as 23.5%, 20.5% and 4.5% of the adolescents had high level, mild level and very high level of junk food consumption. The 20% of adolescents were overweight where as 7.5 % of adolescents were obese. There was statistically significant association between the body mass index and pattern of junk food consumption of the adolescents (Chi² value 103.73 at 0.05 level). Mean post test knowledge scores were higher (23.8) than pre test knowledge scores (17.3) and found to be statistically significantly different (t = 17.6 at 0.05 levels of significance). The findings of the study revealed that information booklet was effective in enhancing the knowledge of adolescents on harmful effects of junk food.

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Adolescent is referred as an individual who is in teenage years or who is in between childhood and adulthood. Adolescent period is from the age of 10 years to 19 years. It is a period of rapid physical growth and more physical activities. Therefore, both boys and girls require well balanced diet to have normal growth and to keep fit¹. Healthy nutritious foods have been replaced by the new food mantra- JUNK FOOD! Junk food comprises of anything that is quick, tasty, convenient and fashionable. It seems to have engulfed every age; every race and the newest entrants are children. They are totally unaware of the havoc they are wreaking on their bodies². Junk food is rich in fats, carbohydrates, and harmful non nutritious food additives that include artificial coloring agents and preservatives most of which were banned under Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (1954)³. Most people prefer to eat because it is easy to buy, quick to prepare, colorful, tasty and fairly priced. A growing number of women are working outside the homes and they have less time to prepare food for their children, so children skip their meals and eat junk food⁴. A study revealed that 25% school children skipped meals for junk food, 60% of these children consumed junk food on a daily basis and more than 50% of children ate junk food because it was advertised on Television⁵. The frequent junk food consumption causes teens and young adults to gain more weight and increased the risk of obesity.⁶ Obesity is the number one health threat for Americans and second leading cause of preventable death in United States and results in 400,000 deaths each year.⁷

 

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

A two phased research was conducted in which phase I including descriptive survey to assess relationship of pattern junk food consumption with body mass index among adolescents and phase II included pre- experimental one group pre-test post-test design to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of information booklet on ‘Harmful effects of junk food’ among adolescents. Data was obtained from 200 adolescents in Phase-I and 56 adolescents in Phase-II. Simple random sampling technique and Total enumeration sampling technique was adopted for Phase-I and Phase-II respectively. The data were collected with the help of standard weighing machine and height scale, Junk food consumption scale and Structured knowledge questionnaire. CDC-2000 growth charts for children and adolescents aged 2-20 years were used to classify adolescents overweight and obese. Written permission was obtained from the principals of the selected schools.

 

RESULTS:

Analysis of data collection was done in accordance with the objectives of the study. The Data presented in Table- 1 depicts that, more than half (51.5%) of the adolescents had Moderate level of junk food consumption pattern where as 23.5%, 20.5% and 4.5% of the adolescents had high level, mild level and moderate level of junk food consumption respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

Table -1: Frequency and percentage distribution of Pattern of junk food consumption among adolescents                                       N-200

Junk Food Consumption Pattern	Frequency	Percentage
Very high level of junk food consumption	9	4.5%
High level of junk food consumption	47	23.5%
Moderate level of junk food consumption	103	51.5%
Mild level of junk food consumption	41	20.5%

 

The data presented in Table -2 indicates majority (61.5%) of the adolescents had healthy weight and only 2.5 % of adolescents were under weight, followed by 28.5% of adolescents were overweight where as only 7.5 % of adolescents were in obese group.

 

Table – 2: Frequency and percentage distribution of body mass index pattern among adolescents.                                              N-200

Weight Status Category	Frequency	Percentage
Under weight	5	2.5 %
Healthy weight	123	61.5 %
Over weight	57	28.5 %
Obese	15	7.5               %

 

The data presented in table - 3 depicts that, the computed chi-square value (103.73), to see the association between body mass index and pattern of junk food consumption among adolescents is found to be statistically significant at 0.05 level of significance with degree of freedom 12. Hence the research hypothesis (H₁) was accepted and null hypothesis (H0₁) was rejected. Thus result indicated that there was association between body mass index and pattern of junk food consumption among the adolescents.

 

Table – 3: Chi-square value showing the association between Body mass index and pattern of junk food consumption.                N-200

Categories	Under weight	Healthy weight	Over weight	Obese
Very high level of junk food consumption	0	1	3	5
High level of junk food consumption	1	9	28	9
Moderate level of junk food consumption	4	72	26	1
Mild level of junk food consumption	0	41	0	0

*Significant at 0.05 level, df =9, ᵡ^{2 =} 16.919

 

The data presented in Table 4, shows that the mean post test knowledge score (23.8) was higher than the mean pre test knowledge score (17.3) with the mean difference of (6.5). The obtained mean difference was found to be statistically significant as evident from ‘t’ value 17.6 for degree of freedom 55 at 0.05 levels of significance. Therefore the obtained mean difference was a true difference and not by chance so the research hypothesis H₃ was accepted and null hypothesis H0₃ was rejected. This shows that the information booklet was effective in enhancing the knowledge of adolescents about junk food and its harmful effects on the health.

 

Table - 4: Mean, Mean Difference, Standard deviation of Difference, Standard Error of Mean Difference from Pre test to Post test knowledge Scores and ‘t’ value on Harmful effects of junk food of adolescents.                                                                       N= 56

Knowledge test	Mean	Mean D	SD D	SE MD	“t value”
Pre test	17.3	6.5	1.36	.37	17.6∗
Post test	23.8

*Significant at 0.05 level of significance at df (55) = 2.0, P< 0.05

 

DISCUSSION:

More than Half (51.5%) of the adolescents were found to have Moderate level of junk food consumption pattern where as 23.5%, 20.5% and 4.5% of the adolescents had high level, mild level and moderate level of junk food consumption respectively. Nighat Nisar et al. (2005), cross-sectional study on 384 medical students for their dietary habit and life style, and 97% reported consumption of junk food, 60% reported use of whole grain food.

 

The findings of the study indicated that majority (61.5%) of the adolescents had healthy weight and only 2.5 % of adolescents were under weight. Although 28.5% of adolescents were overweight where as only 7.5 % of adolescents were in obese group. M shashidhar Kotian et al. (2007) , conducted a cross-sectional study among 1000 students of age 12-15 years of age, concluded that prevalence of overweight was 9.3% among boys and 10.5% among girls, 5.2 and 4.3 % were obese respectively.

 

The study findings revealed that there was association between the body mass index and pattern of junk food consumption of the adolescents as evident by the chi-square value 103.73 at 0.05 level of significance with degree of freedom 12. Biswajit Mohanty (2007-08), conducted a study to identify the prevalence of overweight and obesity on 2067 students of urban and rural area of age 8-13 years and concluded that obesity is significantly higher among urban students 7.4% as compared to rural population; it is particularly associated with high junk food consumption.

 

The finding of the study also revealed that mean post-test knowledge scores of the adolescents were higher than the mean pre-test scores knowledge scores. The information booklet was found to be effective in enhancing the knowledge of adolescents about harmful effects of junk food. S. Puri, V. Bhatia et al. (2008), revealed that information booklet on Right diet for adolescents, which was given in intervention phase was quite effective in enhancing the knowledge of adolescents regarding various nutrients, balanced diet and harmful effects of energy dense food. Mangesh Jabade and Sangeetha Moreshwar, conducted a pre experimental study on 120 adolescents of 8^th and 9^th standards from selected private high school. Structured knowledge questionnaire is used to collect data. The study findings revealed that on assessment of knowledge regarding obesity and its consequences showed that 69 (57.5%) adolescent had average knowledge and 30 (25%) had poor knowledge. After the administration of planned teaching programme, the pre-test and post-test data analysis revealed that the mean post-test score (24±2.68) was higher than the mean pre test score (15.59±3.16). The study concluded that Planned Teaching Programme was effective for high school students to gain knowledge regarding obesity and its consequences. M. Chandrakala, conducted a study on life style modification to combat adolescent obesity recommended that health education on life style modification is essential to prevent obesity and ill effects in later life of adolescents.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

The authors are grateful to the authorities of R.A.K. College of Nursing, New Delhi and East wood International School, Bathinda, Punjab for the facilities.

 

CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

 

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Received on 04.04.2018           Modified on 22.05.2018

Accepted on 28.07.2018     © A&V Publications all right reserved