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Relationships Between Physical Activity, Food Choices, Gender, and BMI in Southern California Teenagers
Author(s) -
Gaylis Jaclyn B.,
Levy Susan S.,
Kviatkovsky Shiloah,
Dehamer Rebecca,
Hong Mee Yong
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.957.22
Subject(s) - overweight , obesity , body mass index , medicine , environmental health , red meat , percentile , food choice , physical activity , childhood obesity , demography , gerontology , physical therapy , endocrinology , statistics , mathematics , pathology , sociology
Given the increased prevalence of pediatric obesity and risk of developing chronic disease, there has been great interest in preventing these conditions during childhood by focusing on healthy lifestyle habits, including nutritious eating and physical activity (PA). The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between PA, Body Mass Index (BMI) and food choices in adolescent males and females and evaluate whether PA and/or food choices have a protective effect on BMI. This cross‐sectional study, using survey questionnaire, evaluated 1, 212 Southern California adolescents' self‐reported PA, BMI and food frequency. Results revealed that even though males are more active than females, they have higher BMI percentile values ( p < 0.05). Females consumed salad, vegetables and fruit more frequently than males ( p < 0.05), where males consumed hamburgers, pizza, red meat, processed meat, eggs, fish, fruit juice, soda and whole milk more frequently than females ( p < 0.05). Overweight/obese teens consumed red meat, processed meat and cheese more frequently than healthy weight teens ( p < 0.05), yet there was no difference in PA between healthy and overweight/obese teens. These results demonstrate that higher levels of PA may not counteract an unhealthy diet. Even though PA provides numerous metabolic and health benefits, this current study highlights that healthy food choices may have a stronger influence and/or impact on protecting against overweight and obesity. Healthy food choices, along with PA, should be advocated to improve adolescent health by encouraging maintenance of a healthy weight into adulthood. 1 Demographic DataMales (n=446) Females (n=766)Age(y) † 15.98±1.52 15.69±1.54 Weight (kg) † 70.11±15.87 58.14±11.63 Height (m) † 173.37±10.35 162.21±8.89 BMI (kg/m 2 ) † * 23.22±4.41 22.06±3.99 Healthy (%) 67.5 78.7 Overweight (%) 17.5 14.0 Obese (%) 15.0 7.3Ethnicity (%)Caucasian 41.4 43.3 Black 7.2 6.3 Hispanic 32.0 33.0 Asian 10.8 10.2 Other 8.6 7.2† measures expressed as mean±standard deviation * indicates statistical significance between males and females using non‐paired t‐tests ( p < .05) BMI percentile categorization: 5‐84.9% = healthy, 85‐94.9% = overweight, ≥ 95% = obese2 PA by Gender and Ethnicity *Males (%) Females (%)PA meeting 52.2 41.4PA not meeting 47.8 58.6Ethnicity (%)Caucasian Black Hispanic Asian Other PA meeting 52.5 45.9 40.4 31.7 44.8 PA not meeting 47.5 54.1 59.6 68.3 55.2* indicates statistical significance between males and females, and among ethnical groups using Chi‐squared tests (χ 2 test) ( p < .05). PA: physical activity3 Dietary Intake by GenderDaily (%) Weekly (%) Monthly (%) Yearly (%) P‐value *Salad Male 15.9 51.2 17.1 15.9 P < .001 Female 22.6 55.3 14.2 7.9Vegetables Male 18.3 53.7 14.7 13.3 P < .001 Female 24.3 58.7 9.6 7.4Fruit Male 40.3 49.5 6.4 3.8 P < .05 Female 48.7 44.5 4.1 2.7Hamburgers Male 9.8 54.9 29 6.3 P < .001 Female 8.5 34.5 43.5 13.6Pizza Male 13.6 59.5 21.8 5.2 P < .05 Female 12.2 50.5 29.7 7.5Red meat Male 24.9 57.4 14.0 3.7 P < .001 Female 16.3 50.8 20.1 12.8Processed meat Male 16.7 58.1 17.2 7.9 P < .001 Female 11.5 40.7 29.1 18.7Fish Male 9.8 36.7 30.4 23.1 P < .05 Female 7.9 30.7 27.0 34.5Eggs Male 16.7 62.8 14.7 5.8 P < .05 Female 16.3 53.4 20.1 10.1Fruit juice Male 34.6 47.6 9.9 7.9 P < .05 Female 29.3 44.3 13.7 12.6Regular soda Male 22.7 42.4 16.6 18.3 P < .001 Female 14 31.4 21.3 33.3Diet soda Male 11.6 24.1 13.4 50.9 P < .05 Female 9.5 18.1 13.0 59.5Whole milk Male 28.7 25.4 8.3 37.5 P < .001 Female 19.2 22.2 8.6 50.1* indicates statistical significance between males and females using Chi‐squared tests (χ 2 test) ( p < .05)4 Dietary Intake by BMI CategoryDaily (%) Weekly (%) Monthly (%) Yearly (%) P‐value *Red meat Healthy 18.9 51.9 19.8 9.4 P < .05 O/O 21.2 57.3 11.9 9.6Processed meat Healthy 12.1 46.2 26.5 15.2 P < .05 O/O 17.2 49.7 19.6 13.5Cheese Healthy 25.6 55.4 10.4 8.7 P < .05 O/O 34.1 47.2 11.4 7.2* indicates statistical significance between Healthy and O/O (overweight and obese) using Chi‐squared tests (χ 2 test) ( p < .05)5 Dietary Intake by PADaily (%) Weekly (%) Monthly (%) Yearly (%) P‐value *Fish PA meeting 11.6 33.7 25.0 29.7 P < .05 PA not meeting 5.3 32.5 31.2 31.0Salad PA meeting 23.9 52.1 14.1 9.9 P < .05 PA not meeting 16.4 57.2 16.1 10.3Vegetable PA meeting 19.8 57.0 16.0 7.1 P < .05 PA not meeting 13.1 57.5 20.0 9.4Fruit PA meeting 52.0 41.6 4.0 2.4 P < .05 PA not meeting 41.2 29.5 5.8 3.5Fruit juice PA meeting 35.4 45.7 9.3 9.7 P < .05 PA not meeting 27.6 45.7 15.3 11.4Eggs PA meeting 11.6 33.7 25.0 29.7 P < .05 PA not meeting 5.3 32.5 31.2 31.0Low fat milk PA meeting 33.0 27.2 6.6 33.2 P < .05 PA not meeting 25.0 30.0 10.1 35.0Whole fat milk PA meeting 27.0 22.6 6.0 44.4 P < .05 PA not meeting 19.1 24.5 10.1 46.3* indicates statistical significance between PA meeting and PA not meeting using Chi‐squared tests (χ 2 test) ( p < .05). PA: physical activity