SURVEY ON PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND DIETARY HABITS OF ADOLESCENCE IN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Health behavior of adolescence is effective on their health and health and
development of a community. Proper nutrition and physical activity are the most important preventive
health behaviors for adolescents. Poor or inappropriate dietary and physical activity habits increase the
risk or incidence of chronic disease such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity among adolescents.
This study aimed to assess physical activity and dietary habits of adolescents in high school students
of Urmia
Materials & Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional design was used on 1,600 students (boys and
girls) that were selected with multi-stage sampling. Data were collected by youth health behavior
questionnaire and were analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Result: The results of research related to nutrition showed that 3% of the sample didn’t have salad in 7
days, 19 % didn’t have vegetables and 32.6 % didn’t drink milk in 7 day while only 0.3 % drank
neutral fruit juice during 7 days and 63.3% drank soda daily. The data related to physical activity
showed 39.3 % didn’t have any physical activity in 7 days, 54% didn’t have physical activity and
exercise in their school and 53.4% didn’t play in any team of sport while 51.4% watch television daily
for more than 3 hours and 17.7% claimed to use computers and watch TV more than 5 hours a day.
Conclusion: Healthy lifestyle habits, including healthy eating and physical activity, lowers the risk of
becoming obese and developing related diseases. Therefore parents and schools can build a strong
foundation to effectively promote physical activity and healthy eating as well as other healthenhancing behaviors