ABSTRACT

Ultra-processed food and drink products are packaged formulations resulting from several sequences of industrial processes. They are packaged in such a way to make them intensely palatable, have a long shelf life. Ultra-processed are known for their contribution to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) like obesity, insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes. The broad objective of the study was to examine the consumption of ultra-processed foods and drinks and dietary pattern of adolescents in Aba South Local Government Area, Abia State. This was a cross sectional study carried out among 399 adolescents. Data was collected using a well-structured and validated questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 20. The anthropometric measurements of the respondents was taken. There were more male respondents (70.7%) male than female respondents (29.3%). Most of the respondents' parents (42.9%) were middle income earners. Majority of the respondents (86%) skipped meals, due to unavailability of food (76.4%). Most of the respondents consumed biscuits (72.9%), chocolate bar (49.4%), pasta (64.1%) and buns (41.8%) daily. While some of the respondents rarely consumed canned beef (22.8%), yogurts (2 1.8%) and pizza (69.7%). The respondents had a low rate of fruit (52.4%) and vegetables (45.1%). The male respondents had a high prevalence of underweight (19.7%) while the females had a lower prevalence of underweight (0.8%). The male respondents were shown to have a normal weight (44.2%) than the female respondents (16.5%). A high prevalence of obesity was observed among the female respondents (5.0%) while the male respondents (1.3%) were shown to have a low prevalence of obesity. The chi square analysis showed that there was a significant relationship between the consumption of instant noodles (p<0.0000), and cake (p><0.0000) and obesity. This is to say that high consumption of some ultra-processed food can be related to an adolescent's increase in weight and obesity. Adequate nutrition and health education should hereby be provided to adolescents and their parents, with increased access to a variety of micronutrient rich foods. Schools should create better meal opportunities for children so they don't consume ultra-processed foods. >