Determining compliance with the mediterranean diet in adolescents aged 14-18 and evaluating its relationship with obesity

This study was carried out to determine the adherence to the Mediterranean diet in adolescents aged 14-18 years and to evaluate the relationship between obesity and obesity. For this purpose, 380 adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 who continue their high school education in Ataşehir province of Istanbul were included in the study. Questionnaires were administered face-to-face and online throughout the research. Questionnaire forms consist of general questions about nutrition, anthropometric information, food consumption frequency questionnaire and a 16-question Mediterranean Diet compliance questionnaire. When the data obtained were analyzed, it was determined that 50.5% of the participants were girls and 49.5% were boys. The mean age of the adolescents in this study was 15.87±1.00. The average height of the adolescents participating in the study was 170.73±8.58 cm, their average weight was 62.34±13.32, and their body mass index was 21.27±3.47 kg/m2. While 60.5% (n=230) of the adolescents stated that they did sports, 39.5% (n=150) stated that they did not do sports. Of the adolescents, 2.6% (n=10) were underweight, 85.3% (n=324) had normal weight, 7.9% (n=30) were overweight, and 4.2% (n=n) =16) was found to be obese. It was observed that 15.5% (n=59) of the adolescents had good adherence to the Mediterranean diet, 55% (n=209) had average adherence, and 29.5% (n=112) had poor adherence. As a result, the adherence of the adolescents participating in the study to the Mediterranean diet was determined as mostly moderate and poor level. The prevalence of obesity in adolescents was found to be 4.2%.