The relationship between junk food consumption, healthy nutrition, and obesity among children aged 7 to 8 years in Mersin, Turkey

Öncü, Emine | Güven, Yasemin

Increasing junk food (JF) consumption (JFC) among school-aged children is a public health issue that may affect the quality of their diet. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors associated with high-energy intake from JFC in children aged 7 to 8 years with dif- ferent socioeconomic backgrounds and examine the relationship among JFC, healthy food consumption, and obesity. The hypothesis of the study is that JFC index is related to con- sumption of staple foods and body mass index. This cross-sectional study was conducted between October 2018 and April 2019 with the participation of 524 children and their parents with low or high socioeconomic status. The data collected with “Healthy Food and JFC Fre- quency Parents”“Views Form”and “24-Hour Dietary Recall Child Form”were analyzed using multiple analysis methods with P ≤ .05 significance level. Among the children, 53.1% were female, 14.1% were children with obesity, and 18.5% consumed at least one of the JF groups daily. A difference was observed between the calorie intake from JF in children with obesity (292.90 kcal/d) and children without obesity (395.76 kcal/d). The consumption of salty food is associated with low-income levels and consumption of fast food is associated with high- income levels. According to the va...