Abstract
BackgroundThe home food environment has the potential to influence the eating behaviour of adolescents. This investigation aimed to understand Indian adolescents’ perspectives of their home food environments.MethodsAdolescents aged 14–16 years (n = 1026, 65.3% girls) attending private secondary schools in Kolkata completed a paper-based questionnaire during school time which included questions about family food rules, availability and accessibility of foods at home, and domestic cooking responsibility. Boys’ and girls’ opinions and experiences were compared through cross-tabulation analyses.ResultsAlmost all the adolescents reported that fruits (91.6%) and vegetables (95.7%) were always available in their homes. Approximately two-fifths reported that sugar-sweetened beverages (36.2%) and salty snack foods (38.0%) were readily available. In 56.1% households, adolescents were expected to follow certain food rules during mealtimes (e.g. not talking with my mouth full). The majority of the respondents (80.4%) identified mothers as the primary meal providers, only a minority reported that fathers (5.1%) were responsible for preparation of family meals.ConclusionThis understanding of the family-environmental determinants of adolescent dietary habits provides useful directions for nutrition promotion interventions. Health and educational professionals associated with adolescents could communicate about the development of healthy home food environments to provide positive health benefits for adolescents and their families.
Highlights
The home food environment has the potential to influence the eating behaviour of adolescents
The rapid emergence of adolescent obesity in India over the last decade [1, 2] has led to increasing concern about the diets of adolescents [3]
Study design and sampling The present investigation draws on cross-sectional data from a sample of 1026 Indian adolescents who participated in the “Dietary and Lifestyle” (DAL) survey
Summary
The home food environment has the potential to influence the eating behaviour of adolescents. Since food habits adopted during adolescents are likely to be maintained during adulthood [8], it is important to Several factors appear to influence the development of adolescent dietary practices. These include individual (e.g. taste, nutrition-related knowledge, self-efficacy) social environmental (e.g. parents, peers), physical environmental (e.g. school canteen, fast food establishments), and macrosystem influences (e.g. food advertisements) [9,10,11,12,13]
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