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Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to understand the associations between dietary behaviors,lifestyles and the body mass index in Taiwanese school-age children.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to aware of the factors affect on the body mass index in Taiwanese school-age children.
Methods: A cross-sectional method design was used to explore the relationships between dietary habits, lifestyles and body mass index in Taiwanese school-age children. 2,443 school-age participants were recruited by multistage random cluster sampling from 40 public elementary schools in southern area of Taiwan and data were collected in 2009.
Results: Participants ranged in age from 10 to 12 years, the means age was 11.6 years (SD =.93). 51% participants were male (1,238/2,443). The average of body mass index was 20.09±4.12(Kg/m2), and body mass index of 57% participants were within the normal ranges. 37% of the participants did not eat breakfast every day, 33% seldom ate vegetables/full-grain food and had exercised more than 30 minutes every week. The low frequency of eating breakfast habits, the time spent on physical activities and the energy expenditure had significant relationships with overweight (p < 0.01). The high frequency of consumption of snacks (high-salty, high-fatty or high-sweet), as well as low level of physical activities had a significant inverse association with body mass index (p < 0.01).
Conclusion: Interventions and assessment of the strategies of health promotion are necessary to help Taiwanese school-age children on healthy lifestyles and dietary habits, to decrease their individual health risks factors and to promote their health behaviors.
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