Some factors associated with nutritional status of female adolescent students in Dubai at the United Arab Eimrates

ABSTRACT

The main aim of the present study was directed to assess the factors affecting the nutritional status of females adolescents students [635] in Dubai at UAE from the sample included urban [public and private] and rural secondary schools were randomly chosen. Data were collected through personal interview using especially designed questionnaire sheet. The obtained data were statistically analyzed. Results revealed that 33.3% and 17.8% of female student's fathers and 40.8% and 21.0% of their mothers were illiterate in the rural and urban public schools respectively. More than third of the sample [41.1% and 40.8%] of fathers and mothers under study respectively of all subjects had primary and preparatory education. Higher percentages were noticed in urban private schools for educational status of student's father and mother [secondary, college and post graduate education] compared to the other schools. The majority of mothers [88.8% of student's mothers] were emirates. Most of student's families were nuclear. The majority of families' size had big families having 6-10 members. While, 23.6%, 12.6%, and 2.5% of urban private, public and rural schools families tended to have low size [3-5 members] respectively. Higher percent of students in the urban private schools used to frequently practice sport [3 to 4 weekly] than their counterparts in the other schools. The majority of the students under study spent little of time for walking while they spent long time for using computer and/or watching TV that might lead to overweight. Only 18.3% of all students skipped their breakfast while, 35.4% of them sometime took their breakfast [1-3 times weekly], however 21.3% intended to eat it everyday. More than 50% of the studied students took their lunch daily as main meal. Reasonable percentage of the students prefer to eat their dinner daily [>/= 40%]. On the contrary, low percentage of subjects skipped dinner to maintain their body weight by dieting. More than two thirds of the students under study sometime used to take snacks. Small percentages of the female students in rural and urban schools [public and private] were on diet. About half of subjects in urban schools used to get soda drinks with meal, while their sibling in rural area recorded lower percent compared to them. Meanwhile, more than half of all the studied females did not drink tea and / or coffee at all. The energy, protein, and carbohydrates intakes for all subjects were higher than their recommended quantities. Slightly higher normal BMI percent was noticed in rural surveyed girls than that in urban schools. The urban students private and public schools girls showed almost the same percent of overweight. The statistical analysis of data proved that the BMI had significant relations with each of eating dinner, and snacks, dieting, and macronutrients intakes