Proper Consumption of Sugary Drinks and its Association with Adolescent Girls’ Knowledge and Skill

Background: Changes in the nutritional behaviors from consumption of traditional nutriments to intakes of high energy, concerned in powering the increasing problem in adolescents and children's obesity. The current study intended to evaluate Proper consumption of sugary drinks and its association with adolescent girls’ knowledge and skill in Shahr-e-kord city, Iran.Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out on girl's students in Shahr-e-kord city. Using random sampling method and based on sampling size formula, a total of 308 of the girls students were randomly selected from the schools and were registered into the study. Then they received a research-made questionnaire containing questions about the knowledge, skill and Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 18.0 by ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient.Results: The mean age of the participating adolescent girls was 13.86 ± 1.3 years old. The mean score for knowledge was 36.53 ± 21.87 and the mean score for the skill of preparing and consumption of sugar free drinks was 35.77 ± 24.67. The average amount of daily consumption of sugary drinks among studied adolescent girls was 2.95 glasses.There was a direct significant association between students’ knowledge and skill (P = 0.002, r = 0.182), There was also a significant reverse association between adolescents’ skill(P = 0. 006 r = -0.228) and knowledge (P = 0. 05 r = -0.322) with consumption of sugary drinks.Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, to increase the consumption of valuable foods and improving adolescents’ nutritional habits, more attention should be paid to the health education and promotion and by using effective relevant patterns and theories.