survey on physical activity and dietary habits of adolescence in high school students

survey on physical activity and dietary habits of adolescence in high school students     haghighi moghadam y [1] , feizi a [2] , khalilzadeh h [3] *     received: 21 sep, 2011 accepted: 29 nov, 2011     abstract   background & aims : health behavior of adolescence is effective on their health and health and development of a community. proper nutrition and physical activity are the most important preventive health behaviors for adolescents. poor or inappropriate dietary and physical activity habits increase the risk or incidence of chronic disease such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity among adolescents. this study aimed to assess physical activity and dietary habits of adolescents in high school students of urmia   materials & methods : this descriptive, cross-sectional design was used on 1,600 students (boys and girls) that were selected with multi-stage sampling. data were collected by youth health behavior questionnaire and were analyzed using descriptive statistics.   result : the results of research related to nutrition showed that 3% of the sample didn’t have salad in 7 days, 19 % didn’t have vegetables and 32.6 % didn’t drink milk in 7 day while only 0.3 % drank neutral fruit juice during 7 days and 63.3% drank soda daily. the data related to physical activity showed 39.3 % didn’t have any physical activity in 7 days, 54% didn’t have physical activity and exercise in their school and 53.4% didn’t play in any team of sport while 51.4% watch television daily for more than 3 hours and 17.7% claimed to use computers and watch tv more than 5 hours a day.   conclusion: healthy lifestyle habits, including healthy eating and physical activity, lowers the risk of becoming obese and developing related diseases. therefore parents and schools can build a strong foundation to effectively promote physical activity and healthy eating as well as other health-enhancing behaviors.   keywords: physical activity, d ietary habits, high school adolescence     address: urmia nursing and midwifery faculty, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran   tel: (+98) 9143611406   email: [email protected]   [1] instructor , nursing faculty , urmia university of medical sciences, urmia iran (corresponding author)  [2] assistant professor, nursing and midwifery faculty, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran   [3] instructor, nursing faculty , urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran