Table 4.3b. Attitude of (NNS) (n=396)                                                                      46

Table 4.4 a. Perception of health risks associated with consumption of NNS

 amongst   participants (n=396)                                                                                 48                          

Table 4.4b Perception of health risks associated with consumption of NNS amongst

            participants ( n= 396) Continuation                                                               49

Table 4.4 c. Perception of participants towards Non-Nutritive Sweeteners (NNS)

 (n=396)                                                                                                                     51

Table 4.5a. Consumption pattern of artificial sweeteners amongst participants (n=396)

               Variable                                                                                                       55

Table 4.5b. Consumption pattern of artificial sweeteners amongst

            participants ( n=396) continuation                                                                56

Table 4.5c. Consumption pattern of artificial sweeteners amongst participants

 (n=396)   58

Table 4.5.d consumption pattern of artificial  sweetener among participant

 (n=396) cnd.                                                                                                              59

Table 4.6a. Factors associated with knowledge, attitude and perception towards

                      consumption of NNS (n=396)                                                                           61

Table 4.6b. Factors associated with knowledge, attitude and perception towards

                      consumption of NNS (n=396)                                                                            62

ABSTRACT

This cross-sectional study assessed the knowledge, attitude, perception, and consumption pattern of non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) among adolescents in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State using multi-stage sampling technique. An interviewer self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 396 adolescents. Knowledge was classified as <50% (poor), 50-70% (fair) and >70% (good), attitude was classified as <50% (negative), 50-70 (neutral) and >70% (positive), and perception was classified as <50% (low), 50-70% (moderate) and >70% (high). Frequency and percentage were used in analyzing the socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge level, and attitude of health risk, perception of health risk and consumption pattern of NNS. Chi-square was used to test factors associated with knowledge, attitude, perception and consumption pattern of NNS at ≤ 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that more than half of the adolescents had poor knowledge (58.6%) with (51.5%) participants believing that NNS contains fewer calories than sugar, 63.4% perceiving a lower risk for cancer, and 65.4% doubted that NNS reduced food cravings. Attitude were mostly neutral at 38.4% suggesting limited awareness regarding the benefits and risk of these substitutes. The neutrality might be from lack of strong opinions or insufficient knowledge about health implications associated with NNS. About 30.1% supported to substituting sugar with NNS and 83.8% supported on the necessity to check food labels for NNS. More than half (55.1%) had low awareness with being able to identify common foods containing NNS. The food product containing nonnutritive sweetener that had the highest daily consumption was cocoa products with (36.6%), with about 24% of the respondents consuming flavored drink once weekly, 31.8% of the respondents consumed carbonated drinks once daily. Based on dairy product consumption, 30.8% consumed dairy product once daily, and 23.2% of the respondents consumed confectionaries 2-3 times daily. The study showed that about 34.6% of the respondents consumed candies once daily, 22.5% of the respondents consuming cereals once daily, and 28.5% of the respondents rarely consumed jam. Statistical analysis shows that marital status of parents, class of study and location of residence were associated with knowledge of NNS. Location of residence and marital status were associated with attitude, while class, location of residence and marital status were associated with perception of NNS. The findings in this study indicates that majority of adolescents have limited knowledge and awareness of NNS. The study recommends that intervention strategies such as implementing school-based education programs that addresses the types, uses and potential health effect of NNS be designed National or community level awareness campaigns should also be implemented.