The Situation Regarding School Canteen and Physical Activities among a Sample of Primary and Preparatory School Children in Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 National Nutrition Institute, Cairo, Egypt

2 National Nutrition Institute, Cairo Egypt

Abstract

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) come via (unhealthy diet, /physical inactivity, tobacco use and harmful use of alcohol); all increase the risk of dying from NCDs. Children consume approximately half of their total daily amount of energy at school. This work designed to get a baseline data on the condition with reference to school canteen and physical activities between primary and preparatory schools.The study was conducted among 1361 school children age (6 y- 13 y) randomly selected from schools in four governorates: Cairo, Qalyobia, Menofia and Giza. Two types of questionnaire were done during the study; which interview was conducted to the school children, and qualitative type (focus group discussion) for school children and teachers responsible for nutrition in the school. Results revealed that the majority of the sample used to buy from school canteens (1294). Food from canteen was Low nutritious value high energy. However, these recommendations were achieved by only (37.1%) of study sample, nearly two thirds (63.9%) of the sample didn't practice any physical activities, while 14% and 10.7% of them practice physical activity once and twice weekly respectively. One quarter of the sample (25.4%) stay in front of TV or computer less than 1 hour daily, and 58% of them stay 2 hours daily. Conclusion: The present study shows that low nutritious value high energy density food items represent the commonly consumed food brought from school canteens. The practice of physical activity is very little, and in case of practicing, it is practiced infrequently.

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