Comparison of Nutritional Behaviour of Adolesceııts in Private and Public School

Abstract

This stııdy was planned tofind out the nutritional status of 487 adolescents who attended two lıigh schools, one of which um private and the other was pııblic. Ali the students were a ged betwveen 12-18 years. Boy and girl students were 55.6% and 44.4% respectively. According to the results, the mean height of the students at the private school was higher than the students at the public school. According to the Body Mass Index (BMI), 18.0% of ali students at the private school, and 30.1% of ali students at the public school were ovenveight. 23.9% of the students at private school and 28.1% of the students at the public school were ıındenveight by BMI. The reason o f lıigh ovenveight rate at the pııblic school was overconsumption of cereal and fast food. 53.1% of ali students were eating only two meals daily. The most skipped meal was breakfast (41.9%). As a result, the high rate of nutritional misbehaviour was indicating the need for nutritional education progranımes for teachers, families and students.