Selected eating behaviours of girls and boys attending sport-oriented classes

Background: Eating behaviours play a key role in lives of young people who stay physically active. They influence both their correct development and performance. Objective: Evaluation of selected eating behaviours of girls and boys attending sport-oriented classes and identification of differences between eating behaviours of studied groups. Materials and Methods: 460 students attending sport-oriented classes in Poland participated in the study. A questionnaire prepared by the author of the study was the research tool. The data was gathered in Microsoft Office Excel 2010 worksheet. Statistical analysis was made with the use of StatSoft, Inc. Statistica version 10.0. Results: The questioned students most often had 4-5 meals a day- such an answer was given by 59.09% of the boys and 41.38% of the girls. 55.59% and 41.95% of them respectively had breakfast within 30 minutes from waking up and 41,96% of the girls and 39.51% of the boys had supper 2-3 hours before going to sleep. Whole meal bread and/or groats were most frequently consumed a few times a day as it was declared by 50.35% of the boys and 45.98% of the girls. The highest percentage of the respondents consumed vegetables at least once a day (31.61% of the girls and 31.47% of the boys). 44.83% of the girls and 40.9% of the boys declared eating fruit a few times a day. Conclusions: Studied eating behaviours of girls and boys in sport-oriented classes are largely wrong and require correction. The analysis of the gathered data indicated statistically significant differences between boys' and girls' eating behaviours, however, the boys' habits were better.

Eating behaviours of middle- and secondary-school pupils from the upper Silesian region in Poland.

BACKGROUND: Eating behaviours of school-aged youth condition their emotional and psychophysical development. Moreover, they influence the effectiveness of learning and affect one's health and the quality of life at older age. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was the evaluation of eating behaviours of the group of pupils from cities of the Upper Silesian region, as well as the identification of differences between middle-school and secondary-school pupils' eating behaviours. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 902 pupils (474 middle-school and 428 secondary-school pupils) participated in the study. The research materials included questionnaires prepared by the author of the study, containing the questions about the pupils' eating habits. RESULTS: The middle-school pupils constituted 52.5% of the 902 pupils and the secondary-school pupils were 47.5% of the total. On average, 38.2% of the pupils consumed 4 meals daily. Wholemeal bread and/or groats were eaten daily by 34.4% of the pupils. Milk and/or milk drinks were consumed by 56.3% of the pupils every day and 33.5% of the respondents had also fermented milk drinks daily. 61.3% of the participants declared eating meat at least once a day and 44.9% of the pupils had fish once or twice a week. Vegetables and fruit were eaten daily by 61.4% and 66.6% of the pupils respectively. Sweets were consumed at least once a day by 50.6% of the pupils. Occasional consumption of fast-food products and ready-made meals was declared by 63.9% and 49.7% of the pupils respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Eating behaviours of the discussed group of pupils are mostly incorrect. There were differences found between the middle-school and secondary-school pupils' eating habits. The differences concerned the frequency of eating cheese and curd cheese, fruit, leguminous plant seeds, sweets, fast food products, sweetened drinks and ready-to made food products. KEY WORDS: eating behaviours, eating habits, eating frequency, pupils.