Determination of obesogenic dietary habits in primary school children with the mediterranean diet quality index and nutrition screening test

The aim of this study is to determine the obesogenic nutritional habits of primary school children with Mediterranean diet quality index (KIDMED), a dietary screening tool to assess children's obesogenic dietary habits (E-KINDEX), and the physical activity levels of children with the Physical Activity Questionnaire (PAQ-C). The study was carried out on 190 volunteer children aged 6-10 years in two primary schools in Gaziantep city center between October 2020- February 2021. Information about children and families was obtained with a questionnaire and anthropometric measurements of children were taken. SPSS 22.0 package program and WHO Antro program were used for statistical analysis. Of the 190 children, 41.1% were boys, 58.9% were girls, and mean age was 8.7±1.2 years. Mean height of boys aged 7, 8 and 10 and girls aged 6 and 7 is below the WHO-2007 reference growth mean values. The average body weight and body mass index (BMI) of all children was higher than the WHO-2007 reference growth mean values. The prevalence of underweight, normal, overweight and obesity were evaluated according to BMI for age Z-score and found to be 4.2%, 43.2%, 26.3%, 26.3% and 4.0%, respectively. Mean KIDMED score of the children were 5.8±2.1 (M: 5.6±2.3, F: 59±1.9). The proportion of children with low, intermediate and high KIDMED scores were 13.7%, 63.7% and 22.6%, respectively. Mean KIDMED score of boys was found significantly lower (p=0.037) in underweight (2.5±3.5) group compared to normal (6.0±2.6) and overweight (6.4±1.6) children using weight for age references. Mean overall score obtained in the e-KINDEX screening test was determined as 58.5±7.9. No significant difference was found between E-KINDEX screening test scores and the body weight, height, BMI percentile and z-score values. Mean PAQ-C score was 20.6±5.9 (Boys: 21.3±6.3, Girls: 20.1±5.6). No significant differences were found between PAQ-C scores and gender, age. It was determined that there was a positive correlation between e-KINDEX total score, KIDMED total score and age. A negative correlation was found between PAQ-C score and BMI. Nutritional habits and physical activity of the children has positive impacts on the anthropometric values of the children. Healthy food and built environment development and monitoring is needed for the prevention of obesity in school children.