Junk Food Consumption Among Secondary Level Students , Chitwan

Introduction: Junk food is a pejorative term for cheap food containing high levels of calories from sugar or fat with little fibre, protein, vitamins or minerals. This study was conducted to assess the junk food consumption and patterns of consumed junk food among secondary level students.Material and Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional research. Hundred forty-two respondents were drawn by using cluster sampling method. Self-administered semi-structured questionnaire in Nepali Version was used and the collected data was entered and analysed in Epi-data and SPSS Version 20 by using simple statistical methods.Results: The findings revealed that more girls (53.5%) consumed junk food than boys (79.6%) and those respondents were aware of the meaning of junk food. Majority of respondents (90.1%) preferred junk food for taste, is faster to prepare (44.4%), preferred as influenced by TV advertisements (15.5%), because of peer influences (31.7%) and some (29.6%) respondents preferred junk food because nothing else was available. Concerning patterns of consumed junk food all respondents (100%) consumed ‘chat-pat’ and noodles, panipuri (97.2%), doughnuts (93%), chocolates (92.3%), biscuits (95.8%), ice cream (65.5%) and cold drinks (65.5%). Only 54.2% of respondents were aware of risks associated with poor eating habits.Conclusion: Adolescents consumed a greater amount of junk food which led to a majority of ill effects later on. It is recommended that the school and community conduct and implement awareness programme on junk food consumption and its ill effects.


Introduction
T he term 'Junk food' was coined as a slang in the public interest in 1972 by Michael Jacobson, Director of the Centre for Science, Washington D.C. Junk food is energy dense food with high amount of refi ned sugar, white fl our, trans-fat, polyunsaturated fat, salt, numerous additives and low nutrient value in terms of protein, fi bre, vitamin, and mineral content.Foods like chips, chocolate, soft drink etc. are generally taken as junk food 1 .
Habits start young and depend on the environment (home and school primarily) to cultivate healthy habits in children, the school being the next-best home of learning and nurturing.With the rise in the incidence of obesity and overweight amongst youngsters and adults, the darkside of 'junk food' cannot be overlooked.The statistics of America records sixty million deaths every year due to obesity or overweight 2 .
Adolescence is commonly regarded as a relatively healthy period of the life cycle.During this period there are various physical, psychological and behavioural transitions occurs which affect their lifestyle and infl uences their eating patterns.Eating pattern of adolescents is infl uenced by many factors including peer infl uences, parental modeling, food availability, food preferences, cost, convenience, personal and cultural beliefs, mass media, and body image 3 .
Competitive foods are sold through vending machines, school canteens/stores, and fundraisers and, in contrast to the federally-reimbursable school meal programs against federal nutritional standards.They are available in a large share of schools, although the availability of these foods varies signifi cantly.For example, as many as 97% of high schools and 82% of middle schools have vending machines compared to only 17% of elementary schools 4 .Among 1000 college adolescents, signifi cantly greater numbers of boys 15% as compared to girls 10.2% were overweight.Out of the total obese children, 82.3% were non-vegetarian, whereas only 8.8% of vegetarians and ova vegetarians were obese.Hence the incidence of obesity was found to be signifi cantly higher in those adolescents who ate meals outside home 5 .
Most of the adolescentsts during their mealtime eat junk food and get addicted to its taste, but it has low nutritive value and high calories, which results in obese children.Junk foods are also laced with colours which are often inedible, carcinogenic and harmful to the body which can affect the digestive system.Food colouring can cause hyperactivity and lapses of concentration in children, resulting in a child with learning disabilities 6 .
Among 341 young working adults regarding attitude towards the health of junk food, the participants gave overweight and obesity (44.3%) as their main concern, followed by heart disease (19.2%) and cancer (18.6%).Although these fi ndings were not signifi cant, substantially more participants in the higher socioeconomic group were concerned about diabetes (17.0%), while participants in the low socioeconomic group (23.1%) and middle socioeconomic group (19.4%) were concerned about heart disease 7 .
Among 300 students, 72% prefer junk food for tastiness than home cooked food.(Bake, 2012) So, the new generation is more attracted to junk food items, these replace the other healthier choices such as homemade fresh foods which directly affects health as it may lead to obesity and other diseases in the future.
The objectives of this study were to assess the junk food consumption habits among secondary level school students, to assess its infl uencing factors and the pattern of junk food consumed amongst them

Material and Methods
This was a descriptive cross-sectional research design used to assess the infl uencing factors of junk food consumption and its pattern among school adolescence.The study populations were the students of class 9 and 10 of Bishow Prakash Higher Secondary School, Bharatpur-15, Chitwan.Cluster random sampling technique was used.Out of fi ve sections of class nine and ten, three section were chosen and total students for selected section were taken as study sample, for the convenience of the study.The sample size was determined according to sample size formula which was estimated up to 142.
Inclusion Criteria: Those students were present in the class on the day of data collection and willing to participate in the study.
Semi-structure self-administered questionnaire was developed.The questionnaire was developed by researcher herself on the basis of review related literature, and seeking the opinion from subject experts on the basis of research objectives.The questionnaire was translated and administered in Nepali language by a Nepali teacher.
The questionnaire was divided into two parts: part fi rst related to socio-demographic information and part two related to junk food pattern and infl uencing factors of junk food consumption.
The content validity of the instrument was maintained by developing the instrument on the basis of literature review and seeking the opinion from the research advisor.
Pre-test of the instrument was done among 10% of total sample i.e. (n=14) in Shree Madhyamik Vidyalaya Dhaddaghari, Bharatpur-17 and necessary modifi cation were done on the basis of pre-test fi nding.
Administrative approval was obtained from the concerned authorities of Bishow Prakash Higher Secondary School and Shree Madhyamik Vidyalaya Dhaddaghari after submitting the request from NPI College.The purpose of the study was explained to each participant.
Informed consent was obtained from each participant and their parents.Confi dentiality was maintained by not disclosing the information by giving a code and by using the information only for the study purpose.
The collected data was checked, reviewed and organized for completeness and accuracy and then organized.All the collected data were analysed by using descriptive statistics with SPSS Version 20.Descriptive results were expressed as frequencies, percentage and mean and the important fi ndings of the study were presented in the form of tables.

Results
Data obtained from 142 respondents were analysed according to objectives of the study by using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage and mean.In order to facilitate the interpretation, the analysed data was organized and presented in different tables Regarding sex 53.5% respondents were female and 46.5% were male.Religion-wise 85.9% were Hindu and 2.1% were Christian.Caste variable showed 35.2% Janajati and 9.9% Dalit.Educational status of the parents revealed 94.4% to be literate and 5.6% illiterate.Majority of respondent's fathers (41.5%) were foreign employed and 1.4% were teachers.Income showed the majority of (46.5%) from the family having monthly income Rs.>15001 and 4.9% were belonged from the family having income Rs.<2500 per month.It was revealed that awareness regarding junk food; none of the respondents (100%) brought homemade food for their Tiffi n.Majority of them (79.6%) were aware of the meaning of junk food.The area where food was mostly consumed: 91.5% consumed junk food in school and 8.5% consumed it at home.All of the respondents (100%) were however allowed to consume junk food in their school.Type of junk food consumed was; 35.9% consumed chat-pat, 33.1% frequently consumed noodles, 13.4% frequently consumed biscuits, 7% consumed panipuri, 5.6% consumed doughnuts and 4.9% frequently consumed chocolates.Timings of junk food mostly consumed; the majority (90.8%) consumed junk food at afternoon and 0.7% consumed at night.Concerning consumed frequency within 2 days, 42.3% of consumed junk food twice a day and 3.5% didn't consume junk food.Infl uencing factors for junk food consumption; majority (90.1%) consumed junk food as it tastes better, 44.4% consumed as it is faster, 31.7% consumed junk food as peer infl uence, 29.6% because nothing else was available, 15.5% consumed it as infl uenced by TV advertisement and minority of respondents (1.4%) thought it is free of cost.Person who provided money to buy junk food: most of the respondent's mother (55.6%) gave money to buy junk food and 12% respondent's brother/sister gave money to them.Concerning affordability to buy junk food 66.2% respondents were unable to afford junk food.

Discussion
Junk food is energy dense food with high amount of refi ned sugar, white fl our, trans-fat, polyunsaturated fat, salt, numerous additives and low nutrient value in terms of protein, fi bre, vitamin and mineral content 1 .Our purpose of the study is to fi nd out about the junk food consumption habits of the secondary level students and the pattern of junk foods used.The fi nding shows that 85.9% respondents were Hindus and 2.1% Christians which was similar to the result of Kotecha et al. 8 which showed 93% Hindus and 2% of respondents Christians.Children of the parents involved in farming (27.5%) were more than doing business (16.2%)whereas Bake 10 , showed 7% respondent's fathers were farmers and 37% of the respondent's fathers had their own business.
Our fi nding of the pattern of junk food consumed, maximum were chat pat consumer, followed by biscuit, chocolate, ice cream and cold drinks which was similar with the study done by Kotecha et al 8 and Kigaru et al 12 .The maximum number of students have a variety of junk food for in their school which is low in nutrient value and high calorie often added with colours.Food colouring can cause hyperactivity and lapses of concentration in children resulting in learning disability 6 .
Children usually get addicted to the food containing sweetening agents and food preservatives that are addictive to nature so they deny eating homemade foods and skip their meals as well 1 .This study showed that students preferred junk food for taste, fast availability and peer infl uences which were also shown in the study done by Bake 10 and Joseph et al 11 .
In this, students consumed junk food twice a day (42.3%),once a day (40.1%) and 4-6 times within last two days (13.4%) whereas in the similar study done by Joseph et al 11 students consumed junk food almost every day.Hence the frequency of the junk food consumption also supplements in causing harm to the body.

Conclusion
All children consumed junk food in a regular basis; the majority preferred it for taste and some as infl uenced by advertisements.Only half of them were aware of health risks associated with poor eating habits.Thus, there is a great need to maintain a practice of healthy eating habits among the adolescence in order to decrease the health risk associated with eating frequent junk food.

Table 3 :
Showing pattern of Junk Food consumption (n=142)

Table 5 :
Consumed Time and Frequency of Junk Food within two days amongst respondents (n=142)

Table 7 :
Money and affordability to buy Junk Food (n=142)

Table 8 :
Knowledge of Major Health Risks Associated with Poor Eating Habits (n=142)