AbstractA study of the dietary habits, food consumption and nutritional status of adolescents of Zhonghua Secondary School students was conducted. The objective of our project is to better understand the dietary habit of young adolescents. The scope of the project is to in-vestigate the dietary habits of young adolescents. We conducted sur-veys and held focus group discussions. From our results, we found that young adolescents have a relatively healthy mindset and their environment in�uences their food preferences (e.g. friends, social media, etc).

IntroductionThere has been active promotion of Healthy Eating via various schemes in Singapore. The study aims to have a better understanding of the effectiveness of the schemes. The project serves to identify patterns of some areas of dietary habits such as the consumption of fruits and vegetables of young adolescents (13-15 years old) through the use of survey questions and also through interviewing a focus group of 5-6 people. Hence for this project, we shall showcase how these factors affect the eating habits of Zhonghua Secondary School stu-dents as well as to study the eating trends among the young adolescents in this school. The study also aims to understand if young adolescents frequented certain places like hawker centers so as to understand whether their diet is actually influenced by the people or things around them. We have also analysed if they consume more with their family or friends since when children enters adolescent stage, the frequency of eating dinner with their familiesdecreases.

MethodologySURVEY: A face to face survey was conducted with 55 Zhonghua Secondary School students, with age ranging from 14 to 16 years old. As a pilot trial of the survey, we conducted a beta version of the survey with 10 students. Improvements were then made and an improved version of the survey form was used.FOCUS GROUP: Two sessions of focus group discussions in which there were �ve participants, were conducted. From the survey results, questions were formulated to ask for more details from the survey responses during the focus group discussions. The participants were mainly from the students who have completed the survey. The focus groups were conducted in a classroom. For each session of the focus group, there was a facilitator (to read out the questions for discussion) and a scribe (to record the comments from the participants).

DiscussionBased on the results collated, there were no abnormalities in the stu-dents’ diets and they lead a relatively normal healthy lifestyle, hence they are less prone to falling sick. It can also be concluded that the school plays a major role in in�uencing the young adolescent’s eating habits. Since the young adolescents are schooling, the time that they have for meals is greatly a�ected by the activities that are held by schools(e.g. Co-Curricular Activities or CCAs).

When comparing with the literature review by JA Amorim Cruz, we found out that the young adolescents of Zhonghua Secondary School seem to have a better perspective of their body weight perception and a well balanced diet, compared to adolescents around Southern Europe, where most adolescents have dietary-related problems by not eating healthily.

Our results completely contradict our hypothesis where we derived our hypothesis of young adolescents in this society do not eat a wellbalanced diet, based on the lit reviews. This is regardless of their status in society maojorly a�ects most adolescents. However, the data collated based on the surveys and focus groups of the young adoles-cents in Zhonghua Secondary School disproves the hypothesis that we have crafted out based on the analysis of the literature reviews.

Conclusion The results collated have proven the fact that young adolescents of Zhonghua Sec-ondary School do lead a normal healthy lifestyle where they eat normally. Through the use of survey and focus group discussions, we were able to further understand the eating habits of the students in this school and also a further insight on how the various factors a�ect their dietary habits.

Acknowledgements:NYP Supervisor- Ms Tay Mia EngTeacher Mentor-Mr Goh Tze Mian S&T Students - Diane Lee, Wong Yew Kit, Song Wuchu, Khaw Wei TingAEP Students - Luk Siying, Wang Ziyi

INVESTIGATING DIETARY HABITS OF YOUNG

ADOLESCENTS OF ZHONGHUA SECONDARY SCHOOL

Both Fig 2.1 and 2.2 show that the preference of food is relatively evenly distributed. Vegetables ranked �rst and processed food the last, which is a relatively healthy trend. It is concluded that the young adolescents consume food based on preference.

Fig 3.1 shows only a small percentage (34.5%) of the participants are actively looking out for products with the healthier choice symbol (HCS). During the focus group discussions, most of the participants did see a reason in looking out for the products with the symbol. It is concluded that the intent of the HCS did not go across e�ectively to the young adolscents.

Results With reference to Fig 1.1, the average frequency of meals per day is three. This depicts a healthy dietary habit among the young adolescents. From Fig 1.2, the frequency of eating out among the interviewees clusters within the range of days 1 to 3. However, there is an apparent exception whereby the number of interviewees that eat out for the whole week is 21.2%. A possible explanation for this trend would the hectic schedule of these young adolescents and have little time to have their meals at home.

16%

12%13%

18%

12% 9%

12%8%

9% wholemeal16% fruits12% steamed products13% vegetables18% dairy products12% fried foods8% processed foods12% snacks

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one two three four �veFig 1.1 Frequency of meals/day Fig 1.2 Frequency of eating out

No65.5%

Yes34.5%

Fig. 3.1 Looking out for healthier choice symbol (HCS)

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Fig 2.2 Food preferences

zero one two three four �ve six seven

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Fig 2.1 Frquency of consumption per weekwholemeal steamed

productsfruits vegetables fried food processed

foodsnacks Dairy