Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14279/3857
Title: Dietary and other lifestyle characteristics of Cypriot school children: Results from the nationwide CYKIDS study
Authors: Lazarou, Chrystalleni 
Panagiotakos, Demosthenes B. 
Matalas, Antonia-Leda 
Kouta, Christiana 
Major Field of Science: Medical and Health Sciences
Field Category: Health Sciences
Keywords: Dietary;Chronic diseases;School children
Issue Date: 20-May-2009
Source: BMC Public Health, 2009, vol. 9, article no. 147
Volume: 9
Journal: BMC Public Health 
Abstract: Dietary and lifestyle behaviors at young ages have been associated with the development of various chronic diseases. Schools are regarded as an excellent setting for lifestyle modification; there is a lack, however, of published dietary data in Cypriot school children. Thus, the objective of this work was to describe lifestyle characteristics of a representative segment of Cypriot school children and provide implications for school health education. Methods. The CYKIDS (Cyprus Kids Study) is a national, cross-sectional study conducted among 1140 school children (10.7 0.98 years). Sampling was stratified and multistage in 24 primary schools of Cyprus. Dietary assessment was based on a 154-item semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire and three supplementary questionnaires, assessing dietary patterns and behaviors. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was evaluated by the KIDMED index (Mediterranean Diet Quality Index for children and adolescents). Physical activity was assessed by a 32-item, semi-quantitative questionnaire. Results. Analysis revealed that 6.7% of the children were classified as high adherers, whereas 37% as low adherers to the Mediterranean diet. About 20% of boys and 25% of girls reported "not having breakfast on most days of the week", while more than 80% of the children reported having meals with the family at least 5 times/week. Some food-related behaviors, such as intake of breakfast, were associated with socio-demographic factors, mostly with gender and the geomorphological characteristics of the living milieu. With respect to physical activity, boys reported higher levels compared to girls, however, one fourth of children did not report any kind of physical activity. Conclusion. A large percentage of Cypriot school children have a diet of low quality and inadequate physical activity. Public health policy makers should urgently focus their attention to primary school children and design school health education programs that target the areas that need attention in order to reduce the future burden of metabolic disorders and chronic diseases.
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14279/3857
ISSN: 14712458
DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-9-147
Rights: © 2009 Lazarou et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Type: Article
Affiliation : Harokopio University 
Cyprus University of Technology 
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed
Appears in Collections:Άρθρα/Articles

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