ABSTRACT

Ultra processed products are food products formulated mainly or entirely from processed ingredients, typically including little or no whole food. Ultra-processed food tends to contain levels of fat, sugar and salt to enhance their palatability which can cause energy over consumption and consequently increase risk of obesity. Ultra processed foods have been described as higher in energy, saturated fat, sugar and sodium and lower in nutrient. This study assessed the consumption of ultra-processed food, dietary patterns and anthropometry status of adolescents in Umuahia South Local Government Area, Abia State, Nigeria. It was a cross sectional study and multi stage random sampling was used to select 399 adolescents ten to nineteen years from households in Umuahia South L.G.A. Data were collected with a well-structured validated questionnaire to obtain information on socio-dcmographic characteristics, ultra-processed food consumed, dietary pattern and anthropometric measurements of the respondents. Data obtained was analyzed using Wl1() Anthropometric software and SPSS version 23. The result showed that half of the respondents (50.6%) were males and 49.4% were females. About 41.1% of the adolescents were within the ages of 12-l5ycars while 5 8.9% adolescents were within the ages of 16-19years. Half of the respondents (57.9%) earned less than N30,000 monthly. Instant noodles were consumed daily by 47.9% of the respondents likewise cookies (60.2%), doughnut (55.6%), chips (67.7%) and fiavoredyoghurt (64.2%). Majority (68.4%) of the respondents consumed carbonated drink sometimes likewise ice cream (63.4%), cake (50.6%), breakfast cereals (51.1%), energy drink (62.2%) and pickled vegetables (71.9%). Candies (57.1%), margarine (73.4%) and sausages (51.6%) were never consumed. About 15.5% of the respondents were overweight, overweight was more prevalent in female (15.7%) than male (15.3%) while 10.5% were underweight and 3.1% of the respondents were obese. The chi square result indicated that there was a significant relationship between the consumption of doughnut (p

<0.000), chocolate (13><0.005) and overweight. This study showed that there was a high rate of overweight amongst the respondents, it also showed a higher prevalence in female respondents than male respondents. Thus, it can be deduced that consumption of some ultra processed foods can be related to an adolescents increase in weight. Nutrition education is needed to improve the nutrition knowledge of the parents to guide, encourage healthy and appropriate adolescents feeding habit as these adolescents learn most food consumption and dietary pattern from home and also community based nutrition programme especially in secondary schools educating students on the health implication of ultra processed foods. >