Physical Activities of Adolescents and the Level of Knowledge on the Impact of Their Diet on Their Overall Health

Abstract

The period of adolescence is a period of rapid biological, physical and social changes. Diet of adolescents is based on eating large amounts of fast food. The aim of this research was to determine the relationship between high school students in several cities of the Republic of Srpska (Banja Luka, Gradiška, Srbac, Teslić and Čelinac) and their attitude towards food and the consumption of fast food, as well as food products that are commonly found in their menu.
In this paper, a survey among high school students of both sexes, aged between 15 and 19 was conducted. The survey included 12 questions that can be classified into three groups: general information about the students, the data on physical activities of adolescents who consume “fast food” in their diet and information about their knowledge about the impact of the diet on their overall health.
A great number of students (89.90%) do not think that fast food belongs to the group of “healthy” food, and they think (82.70%) that it has impact on their overall health. More than half of the students (52.90%) are satisfied with their body weight. There is about the same number of students who think that they are overweight (23.90%) or underweight (23.20%). The vast majority of students (92.80%) have not still had acute health problems due to the consumption of fast food. 58.60% of the students are partially satisfied with their diet, 31.10% are satisfied with their diet, and 61.3% of them would like change their diet.