ASSESSMENT OF THE FOOD HABITS OF A GROUP OF STUDENTS FROM TWO COUNTIES OF MOLDOVA

Abstract

Introduction. eating habits run in the family and sometimes last a lifetime. For this reason, it is important to evaluate the nutrition of adolescents and create coherent nutritional educational programs. Material and method. the study was carried out on a group of 139 high school students from two counties of Moldova. The young people filled out a questionnaire with questions about their weekly intake of cheese, chicken, eggs, bread, potatoes and sweets. The results were processed using the Pearson test. Results. the dominant intake of cheeses is once a week (31.65%) or 2-3 times per week (30.93%). Chicken meat is mostly consumed 2-3 times per week (46.76%) and eggs 1 time (38.84%) or 2-3 times (32.37%) per week. The differences calculated by groups and according to the gender of the students are statistically insignificant. Bread appears in the daily menus of only one third of the surveyed students, and potatoes are consumed especially 2-3 times per week (41.00%). Sweets are consumed mostly 2-3 times per week, but the differences between communities are statistically significant (p < 0.001). Conclusions. the statistically insignificant differences obtained for most food products point to the existence of similar eating habits in the families of the students in the study group. Keywords: eating habits, inappropriate consumption, high school students