Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Dietary Intake with the View to Identify the Factors Influencing the Dietary Practices among High School Students in Udupi District, Karnataka

Objectives

To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding dietary intake and delineate the factors influencing dietary practices of the high school students of selected schools of Udupi district, Karnataka.

Methods

The study had adopted a Survey Approach which consisted of two phase. Descriptive survey design was used in the first phase to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding dietary intake among 400 high school students from selected English medium schools. Exploratory survey design was used to delineate the factors influencing unhealthy dietary practices among those having unhealthy dietary practices i.e. 34 students.

Results

From the first phase of the study it was revealed that majority (69.5%) of the students had good knowledge, few (8.5%) had unhealthy dietary practices, only 22.8% had favourable attitude towards unhealthy dietary practice and for 82.5% of the students, parents were the influencing factor in their dietary intake. It was also found that physiological factors like taste, thirst, hunger and fullness of stomach influenced unhealthy dietary practices of 24(70.5%) of the students who belonged to the second phase of the study.