Dietary pattern, breakfast and snack consumption among middle school students

Introduction: Appropriate nutrition is necessary all through life and it's an important factor in student learning and education development. Malnutrition in adolescents may affect cognitive abilities necessary for learning process and consequently educational achievement. Objective: This study was conducted to determine dietary pattern, breakfast and snack in guidance school students in Ramsar city. Methods: In this cross sectional descriptive analytical study 208 governmental middle schools were selected by cluster sampling. Data were gathered by demographic questionnaire and HFFQ (Harvard&rsquo;s Food Frequency Questionnaire) . Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytic statistics (chi-square, kruskal &ndash;wallis) . Results: Based on study findings, the main food group consumption of most participants (56.2%) were unsatisfactory. 92.8 % of samples ate breakfast at home and 96.2 % had snack in school. Samples always consumed milk products (34.1%) meat (10.6%), egg (13.9%), vegetables (17.4%) and fruits (34.1%). There was significant relationship between sex and frequency of milk (P< 0.02), meat (p<0.00001), egg (p< 0.004) and sours consumption (p< 0.04). Conclusion: Study results indicated the need for governmental policies to focus on promotion of nutrition education through students and parents education programs by incorporating it in the school curriculum.