Beverage behaviors of senior primary school students in agricultrual and pastoral areas of Qinghai Province / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To study the consumption of beverages among senior primary school students in rural and pastoral areas of Qinghai Province, China, in order to provide evidence for the development of nutrition and intervention strategies.@*Methods@#A multi stage stratified cluster random sampling method was employed to select 969 primary school students in grades 4 and 5 from 10 schools in Hainan Autonomous Prefecture, Haixi Autonomous Prefecture and Haidong City. All participants completed a questionnaire survey on daily beverage consumption. The Chi square test was performed to compare differences in reported rates of beverage consumption among students in different groups.@*Results@#The proportion of students who consumed beverages at home, school and elsewhere were 96.9%, 64.5% and 84.9%, respectively. The most popular beverages consumed at home were milk and yogurt ( 63.1 %), tea water (53.0%), and tea drinks (52.4%). The most popular beverages consumed at school were tea(29.8%), milk and yogurt (27.8%) and tea drinks (18.4%), while the most popular beverages consumed in other places were tea drinks ( 42.0 %), carbonated drinks (38.1%) and milk and yogurt (35.0%). The top five reasons for choosing a given beverage were taste delicious (81.2%), nutritious (57.6%),healthy and clean(52.6%),many students like to drink(39.6%),family members often drink(37.7%).@*Conclusion@#The consumption of beverages was popular among students, and sugared beverages represented a large proportion of the beverages consumed. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve the food environment and provide effective nutrition education for students, so as to encourage the consumption of healthy beverages and cultivate healthy eating behaviors.