Nutrition habits and food consumption status of the students at Ertuğrulgazi Primary School in the central town of Pendik, Istanbul

The current study was carried out in the academic year of 2009-2010 in order to determine the nutrition habits and food consumption status of the students attending to 6th, 7th and 8th grades of Ertuğrulgazi Primary School in the central town of Pendik, Istanbul. A total 252 students, 125 boys and 127 girls, volunteered in the study. Trough the questionnaire prepared by the researcher, personal data and information about their nutritional habits and food consumptions were collected. In addition, anthropometric measurements of the students were taken by the researcher. In the analysis of the data, SPSS 15.0 statistical package program was used. In the evaluation of nutrient compositions, the student version of BeBis (Nutrition Information System) program was used. The chi-square (?²) test and numerical and frequency (percentage) dispersions were taken for the independent groups between the statistical evaluation of the data. In the anthropometric measurements and evaluation of energy and food components, arithmetic mean ( ), standard deviation (S), low and high values were calculated.At the end of the research, Daily Recommended Intake (DRI) values that are recommended depending on gender and age as daily basis in the evaluation of energy and nutrient component were used. It was found that 63.5% of the students were in the age group of 11-12, 19.4% of them were in the age group of 15 and over and 17.1% were in the age group of 13-14. As for the height of the students, it was found that girls were 151.19±8.01 cm, while boys were 153.56±9.35 cm, and in terms of weight, girls were 46.42±10.55 kg and boys were 47.26±11.23 kg. When it comes to the nutrition habits of the students it was determined that 47.2% of the girls and 64% of the boys expressed that they had breakfast every day and the difference between the groups was statistically significant (p<0.05). As for the frequency of food consumption of the students, it was found that 71.0% consumed cheese, 39.35% milk, 8.3% chicken, 71.05% had fruit, 59.5% tomato, 90.9% consumed bread every day and 11.5% consumed syrup sweet every 2-3 months. In the evaluation of the three day food consumption of the students, it was found that boys had the energy as 1715.6±680.8 ccal/day, while girls had it as 1493.6±543.9 ccal/day. It was also determined that 86.5% of the students had insufficient calcium intake, 73.8% had insufficient magnesium intake, 58.7% had insufficient iron intake and 55.2% had insufficient energy intake.Depending on the results obtained in the research, it was found that a great number of the students maintained an insufficient nutrition and some malnutrition habits. It is recommended that in this period when they are in a rapid growth and development, an education over nutrition should be given for students, teachers, administrators and parents at schools.Keywords: Adolescence, Nutrition, Nutrition Habit, Food Consumption.