397 Do Eating Habits have an Effect on Obesity Among Greek Adolescents?

Abstract

Introduction: It has been shown that there is a high prevalence of overweight and obese children at 7 and 18 years in Greece, but there is limited information from the literature regarding their eating habits.Aim: To identify a possible association of eating habits among adolescents with their body mass index (BMI) at 18 years. Population and method: Individuals were 3415 adolescents born in April 1983, who responded to pre-coded questionnaires sent out through the high schools of the country. The self-reported data was examined using multiple linear regression analysis with BMI as the dependent variable. Independent variables were breakfast meals, devouring large amounts of food, stress-related eating, participation in family meals, consumption of home-delivery food, eating elsewhere- not at home and gender.Results: Adolescents that have breakfast daily (p<0.001) or 1–3 times a week (p=0.008) have lower BMI. Youngsters who often eat elsewhere, not at home, also have a lower BMI (p=0.001). In contrast, devouring large amounts of food (p<0.001) and stress-related eating (p<0.001) are significant risk factors for higher BMI. Differences appeared when stratified by gender. BMI for grls rises when devouring large amounts of food (p=0,003), whereas this was non-statistically significant for boys. BMI for boy decreases when they often order home-delivery food (p=0.04), which was found to be non-statistically significant for girls.Conclusions: Greek families need to realize the contribution of breakfast to body shape, as it is one of the most important meals of the day. Obesity prevention programs ought to establish healthy eating habits from an early age. Alternative methods to deal with stress, rather than eating, need to be promoted.