Abstract
Background: Rates of sedentary behavior (SB), fast food and carbonated soft drink consumption are increasing worldwide, with steeper increases being observed in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in recent years. Given that these behaviors have been linked to adverse health outcomes among adolescents, this presents a new but rapidly growing challenge to human health in these under-resourced nations. However, very little is known about the associations between SB and fast food or soft drink consumption among adolescents in LMICs. Methods: Thus, data from the Global school-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) were cross-sectionally analyzed in 133,555 adolescents aged 12–15 years from 44 LMICs [mean (SD) age 13.8 (1.0) years; 49% females]. The data were collected in the form of self-report questionnaires. Associations were assessed with multivariable logistic regression analysis and meta-analysis. Results: The overall prevalence of fast food consumption (at least once in previous 7 days) and carbonated soft drink consumption (at least once per day during past 30 days) were 49.3 and 43.8%, respectively. The overall pooled estimates based on a meta-analysis with random effects for the association of ≥3 h/day of SB with fast food consumption and soft drink consumption using country-wise estimates were OR = 1.35 (95% CI = 1.27–1.43, I2 = 62.1%).) and OR = 1.26 (95% CI = 1.19–1.34; I2 = 54.3%), respectively. Spending > 8 h/day of SB compared to < 1 h/day in females was associated with significantly higher odds for fast food (OR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.38–1.88) and soft drink consumption (OR = 1.91, 95% CI = 1.60–2.28). Conclusions: Future interventions to address unhealthy behaviors in adolescents should take into account the interrelated nature of SB and unhealthy dietary habits, and seek to further understand the mechanisms linking these behaviors in the LMIC context.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 35 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity |
| Volume | 16 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Open Access - Access Right Statement
© The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Keywords
- junk food
- sedentary behavior
- soft drinks
- teenagers
