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Breakfast intake and factors associated with adherence to the Mediterranean Diet among Lebanese high school adolescents
Mounayer and colleagues (2019) state that Mediterranean countries have witnessed a decrease in adherence to their style of diet and have adopted a more westernised dietary pattern recently, so evaluates the association between Mediterranean diet adherence with sociodemographic, lifestyle and anthropometric factors among Lebanese high school students, specifically looking at the correlation between low adherence and breakfast consumption. Six hundred adolescents (268 boys: 332 girls) aged 15-18 were randomly selected from private and public schools in Beirut and Mount Lebanon. Questionnaires and anthropometric measurements were obtained, while the Mediterranean Diet Quality Index for children and adolescents was also utilised to determine diet adherence. While girls had a significantly higher adherence rate than the boys (64.2% vs 35.8%, p<0.001), a high proportion of the total subjects showed low adherence (43%). Lower adherence to the Mediterranean diet, incidentally, was associated with high risk of obesity (15.5%), skipping breakfast (69.4%), and unhealthy breakfast choices (17.4%). A significantly higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet was seen among the younger adolescents (47.4%), students from public schools (92.6%) and those with the highest grades (25.3%) compared to private school go-ers (7.4%) and older adolescents (18.9%). Mounayer et. al (2019) at the end of the study calls for increased awareness in Lebanese schools, and more support for the children to adhere to the Mediterranean diet, in order to prevent a rise in metabolic diseases in the future. [NPID: behavior, Mediterranean countries, Western diet, Western-style diet, sociodemographic factors, anthropometric factors, Lebanese, high school students, adolescence, Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Mediterranean Diet, breakfast, metabolic diseases]
Year: 2019
