ABSTRACT

Ultra-processed foods are formulations made by the food industry mostly from substances extracted from foods or obtained from the further processing of constituents of foods or through chemical synthesis, with little if any whole foods. Consumption of ultra-processed foods has been pointed out as a risk factor for increasing obesity, as measured by BMI, among both adolescents and adults. This study assessed the consumption of ultra-processed food, drinks, and anthropometric status of adolescents in Aba North Local Government Area, Abia State, Nigeria. It was a cross-sectional study. Multi-stage random sampling was used to select 439 adolescents from ten years to nineteen years for the study. Every adolescent was subjected to anthropometric measurements using standard technique. Data were collected with a well-structured and validated questionnaire to obtain information on socio-economic status, food frequency of ultra-processed foods and drinks, and anthropometric measurement. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23. The respondents comprised mostly of Female adolescents (56.0%), while 44.0% were male adolescents. Majority of the adolescents (65.4%) were within the ages of 16-19 years and 36.4% of the adolescents were within the ages of 12-15 years. Cakes were consumed daily by 65.6% of the respondents. Most of the respondents consumed soft drinks (74.7%), packaged bread (68.8%), cookies (71.8%) and instant noodles (59.9%) sometimes. A huge number of respondents never consumed canned fruits, (66.1%), chocolate bars, (76.1%) and candy/sweets, (75.9%) respectively. Most of the respondents were obese (77.6%), obesity was more prevalent in females (48.7%) than males (28.9%) while 5.3% were overweight and 2.5% of the respondents were underweight. The chi-square result indicated that there was a significant (p<0.000) relationship between obesity and some of the ultra-processed food consumed. There was a significant relationship between the consumption of margarine (p<0.000), sausage (p<0.000), chips (p<0.000), canned vegetables (p<0.000), pasta (p<0.000) and obesity. This study showed that there was a High rate of obesity amongst the respondents, it also showed a higher prevalence in female respondents than male respondents. This study showed a significant relationship between obesity and some of the consumed ultra-processed foods and drinks. Thus, it can be deduced that consumption of some ultra-processed food can be related to an adolescent’s increase in weight, but there are other factors that could also cause weight gain in an adolescent to a relative extent. Suggestion for creating of awareness of the effect of ultra-processed foods and drinks to human body and encouraging the consumption of natural and cultural food and drinks. Nutrition education is also needed to improve the nutrition knowledge of the parents to guide, encourage healthy, and appropriate adolescents feeding habits as these adolescents learn most food consumption and dietary pattern at home