Assessment of Dietary, Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviours of Singapore Schooling Youths

Claudine Loong,Wai Mun Loke,Mia Eng Tay

doi:10.12944/crnfsj.8.3.05

Abstract

Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors may set youths on the path to developing non-communicable diseases. Singapore schooling youths (n = 235, 67.2% female, age 17.5 (mean) ± 1.0 (SD) years) were recruited to examine the dietary, alcohol use, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors of the Singapore schooling youths. Demographic, anthropometric, and sedentary hours information were collected using structured questionnaires. Physical activity levels and dietary intakes, including alcohol use, were assessed using the validated International Physical Activity Questionnaire - long-form and localized food frequency questionnaire, respectively. The surveyed youths consumed significantly larger daily amounts of energy, sugar, saturated fat, and sodium than the levels recommended by the Singapore Health Promotion Board. They did not achieve the daily amounts of dietary fiber, fruits, and vegetables, and derived unhealthy proportions of daily energy from sugar and saturated fat. They did not exceed the recommended maximum daily alcohol allowance. Close to all the youths (91.2%) failed to adhere to more than five of the nine recommended healthy eating habits. Majority of these youths (73.4%) partook less than 600 MET-minute/ week. A significant number of the youths (38.1%) spent more than eight sedentary hours daily. Physical activity correlated significantly with sedentary behavior levels, but not the dietary scores. Most surveyed youths engaged in low physical activity and high sedentary behavior, and did not comply with most of the healthy eating guidelines proposed by the Singapore Health Promotion Board, specifically on daily energy, sugar, dietary fibers, saturated fat, sodium, and fruit and vegetable intakes.

Highlights

Non-communicable diseases (NCD) account for approximately 71% of all global deaths each year according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). 1 Each year, 15 million people between the ages of 30 and 69 years die from NCD.[1]
The current nine healthy eating habits for adult Singaporeans, published by the Singapore Health Promotion Board (SHPB), are summarised in Table 1.3,4 WHO recommends that an adult aged between 18 and 64 years old should do a minimum of 600 metabolic equivalents (MET) minutes of total activity per week or about 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity (PA) throughout the week or about 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic PA or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity
The recruited youths were of healthy body mass index (BMI)

Summary

Introduction

Non-communicable diseases (NCD) account for approximately 71% of all global deaths each year according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). 1 Each year, 15 million people between the ages of 30 and 69 years die from NCD.[1]. Consumes the appropriate amounts of calories, concerning the gender and age group as advised by the Singapore Health Promotion Board Female: 2040 kcal/ day (±10%) Male: 2700 kcal/day (±10%) Obtains between 45% and 60% daily energy from carbohydrate Consumes no more than 55g sugar daily Derives no greater than 10% daily energy from sugar Meets the recommended dietary fibre intakes of 26 g/d for male and 20g/d for female youths Obtains between 10% and 35% daily energy from protein Consume at least 60g protein daily for female youths and 80g protein daily for male youths Obtains between 20% and 35% daily energy from fats Derives no greater than 10% daily energy from saturated fats Consumes no more than 2000 mg sodium daily Consumes at least two servings of fruits and vegetables every day Drinks no more than two (20g alcohol, female) or three (30g alcohol, male) standard drinks a day Dietary guidelines are useful to help people to eat healthily. High SB (too much sitting) is understood to increase the risk of major chronic diseases, and thereby reduce the quality of life.[8,9,10] Increasing PA and reducing SB are among the recommendations of the WHO Global Strategy for Physical Activity to promote health and reduce NCD incidence.[5,11]

Methods

Results

Conclusion