Snacking behaviours of adolescents and their association with skipping meals

Savige, Gayle; MacFarlane, Abbie; Ball, Kylie; Worsley, Anthony; Crawford, David

doi:10.1186/1479-5868-4-36

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Table 2 Frequency of snacking among adolescents in eight snacking contexts according to year level, gender and region

From: Snacking behaviours of adolescents and their association with skipping meals

Snacking context	M (± SD) snacking/week^a	Total %	Year level %			Gender %			Region %
n= 3250			7	9		Male	Female		Metro	Non-Metro
After school	4.6 (± 2.4)										**
not in last month		4	4	3		4	3		4	3
once/twice a month		7	8	7		8	7		8	5
once/twice a week		14	14	14		14	14		15	13
most days		41	39	43		39	43		40	42
every day		34	35	33		35	33		33	37
While watching TV	3.5 (± 2.5)										**
not in last month		7	8	6		9	6		7	9
once/twice a month		12	12	11		12	12		12	12
once/twice a week		26	25	28		24	27		24	29
most days		39	39	39		38	39		40	35
every day		16	16	16		17	15		17	15
While hanging out with friends	2.4 (± 2.5)				**			**
not in last month		14	16	11		17	12		15	13
once/twice a month		25	24	27		24	27		25	25
once/twice a week		24	22	27		24	24		23	26
most days		27	27	26		25	27		27	25
every day		10	11	9		10	10		10	11
While doing homework or working	1.8 (± 2.3)							**			*
not in last month		29	30	28		36	24		30	28
once/twice a month		20	19	21		19	21		19	21
once/twice a week		23	23	24		20	26		22	26
most days		22	22	21		19	24		23	19
every day		6	6	6		6	5		6	6
On the run	1.3 (± 2.0)							**
not in last month		28	30	25		31	25		29	26
once/twice a month		30	30	31		28	32		30	31
once/twice a week		24	23	26		22	26		23	26
most days		14	14	15		14	14		14	14
every day		4	4	4		5	3		4	4
On the way to or from school	1.0 (± 2.0)							*
not in last month		57	56	59		56	57		57	56
once/twice a month		17	17	17		17	17		17	17
once/twice a week		12	13	11		11	13		12	13
most days		10	10	8		10	10		10	9
every day		4	4	5		6	3		4	5
All day long	0.8 (± 1.8)				**
not in last month		63	67	56		63	63		62	65
once/twice a month		16	14	20		15	16		16	16
once/twice a week		10	9	12		10	11		11	10
most days		8	7	8		8	7		8	6
every day		3	3	4		4	3		3	3
In middle of night	0.4 (± 1.4)							**			**
not in last month		80	81	78		75	84		77	85
once/twice a month		9	9	10		10	9		11	6
once/twice a week		5	4	5		6	3		5	4
most days		4	4	4		5	3		4	3
every day		2	2	3		4	1		3	2

Snacks are defined as foods and/or drinks that are consumed outside the main meals of breakfast, lunch and dinner.
^a Mean (± SD) times per week adolescents (n = 3,250) snacked in each snacking context.
* p ≤ 0.01, ** p ≤ 0.001. Pearson's chi square test of significance.

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ISSN: 1479-5868

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