Har, Lim Yoke
(2013)
Eating patterns and weight-related concerns among female adolescents in rural schools in Kota Bharu, Kelantan.
Other.
Pusat Pengajian Sains Kesihatan, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Abstract
Some of the typical eating patterns among adolescents include meal skipping,
snacking, eating away from home, fast food consumption and unconventional
dietary patterns like adopting vegetarian diet, specific weight loss diet, and an
overall reduction of food intake. Eating has become one of the most important
health topics due to the increasing prevalence and incidence rates of eating
disorders among different groups of populations. Therefore, this cross-sectional
study was conducted among female adolescents to investigate the eating frequency
of three main meals, identify those who are at-risk of eating disorders, explore
association of eating patterns, weight-related concerns, disordered eating, and
Body Mass Index (BMI). Random cluster sampling method was applied and 2
schools had been selected from a total of 23 schools in rural area. Respondents
were given self-administered questionnaire consisting socio-economic background,
eating patterns, weight concerns, and EAT-26. From a total of 334 respondents,
45.2% was in Form 1 and the remaining was in Form 4. A higher proportion of
form 4 respondents (72.1 %) skipped breakfast as compared to form 1 respondents
(67.5%) [X2 (1) = 0.828, p = 0.363]. There was 18.6% ofthe total respondents atrisk
of eating disorders. This study found more Form 4 respondents (19.1 %) at-risk
of eating disorders compared to Form 1 respondents (17.9%) [X2 (1) = 0.085, p =
0.771]. However, no association found between disordered eating and breakfast
skipping [X2 (1) = 0.561 , p = 0.454]. There is significant association between
breakfast skipping and weight concern in this study [X2 (1) = 4.404, p = 0.036] but
there is no significant association between disordered eating and weight concern in
this study [X2 (1) = 2.997, p = 0.083]. A positive correlation was found between
BMI and EAT-26 score (r5 = 0.240, p = 0.001). In conclusion, the prevalence of female adolescents at-risk of having eating disorders in rural area of Kota Bharu is
comparable to other local studies in urban areas. Thus, nutritional education and
public awareness are needed to improve eating behavior of female adolescents in
this country.
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