[Assessment of dietary intake of lower secondary school students from Bialystok with differentiated state of nutrition].

BACKGROUND: The studies has indicated that mistakes related to nutritional manner and continuously decreasing level of physical activity cause that diet related diseases became an important issue of nutritional epidemiology.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was the estimation of dietary intake of lower secondary school students with differentiated state of nutrition. The effect of selected socio-economic determinants (parents education, the number of children in the family) on the nutritional status of examined children was also considered.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study group involved 947 students from lower secondary school in Bialystok, including 517 girls and 430 boys. Children with normal weight (total number 666, BMI 10-85c) and excessive body weight (total number 243)- with overweight (BMI 85-95c) and obesity (BMI > or = 95c) were selected based on the value of BMI indicator. The study questionnaire contained questions concerning socio-economic determinants. A 24h dietary recall was taken of the day preceding the examination in order to perform a quantitative evaluation of daily food rations.

RESULTS: Daily food rations of the study children were characterized by insufficient intakes of energy, carbohydrates and dietary fiber. Excessive intake of protein were noted in the study children. Excessive intake of fats was also noted in daily food rations of boys with overweight or obesity. There were no statistically significant differences in the education of parents, depending on the nutritional status of children, however boys of normal weight had a statistically significant lower number of siblings, compared with boys with excessive body weight.

CONCLUSIONS: The investigation showed the inappropriate dietary intake for children and adolescent, independently on their gender and nutritional status. Found in our study the presence of a significant proportion of children with excessive body weight with incorrect dietary intake requires the nutrition education including the ability to select products, not only because of their caloric value, but also relative proportions of intake of essential nutrients.