Diet, Physical Activity and Body Condition of Young People

Abstract

The promotion of a healthy lifestyle  and  nutrition education  programs that aim the correction of the improper nutritional habits, present one of the prior principles in the WHO  educational   strategies for  human  health.The  goal  of   this   study   is the development of a database with regard to the  nutritional   teenagers   attitude   in   its quantitative   aspect   (food   consume )   and qualitative (nutrition style) as a necessary demand for the planning of the nutritional and sanitary education interventions. In this study are enrolled 721 children aged 14-19 years old from the secondary schools district of  Tirane  (selected  according   to  four   categories :sex, age ,economic  level and residence zone) This study made possible for the first time the calculation of the average values of the  daily energy intake for this age group and evaluation of the diet in qualitative aspects. The values of the daily energy intake are lower that the recommended  norms of the WHO, mainly in the males/ rural zones and with a tendency for a non equilibrated  nutrition  in  the   population  with   scarce economic level. The diet is a typical Mediterranean one with some   light deviations with regard to the frequent consumes of the bread, milk and fish according to the recommended values.