Exploring food habits and nutritional behaviours in adolescents at a secondary school in South Africa
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Authors
Ndlovu, Proper
Issue Date
2015-11
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
Adolescents , Eating habits , Non-communicable disease , Nutritional behaviours
Alternative Title
Abstract
The purpose this study was to explore food habits and nutritional behaviours of adolescents in a school in Lenasia South, in Gauteng Province. Qualitative, explorative research was conducted in order to recommend effective prevention strategies of non-communicable diseases. Adolescents from the selected secondary school formed the sample of the study. Data collection was done using focus groups’ discussions. Three focus group discussions were conducted in the study. The first group comprised of thirteen male adolescents, followed by ten female adolescents and the final group was a combination of both female and male learners to produce a homogenous group. Specific common eating habits and nutritional behaviours emerged from the focus group discussions which included skipping meals, high consumption of high energy dense foods and sweetened beverages. Consequently, when developing intervention programs and policies to improve health of adolescents, environmental influences that undermine efforts to improve adolescent’s dietary behaviours must be addressed.
Description
Text in English
Citation
Ndlovu, Proper (2015) Exploring food habits and nutritional behaviours in adolescents at a secondary school in South Africa, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/20145>