Youthful eating habits studied

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 31

Youthful eating habits studied

A three-year study of the eating habits of young teenagers has started in Christchurch. The National Heart Foundation has given $1§,588 to Associate Professor Andrew Hornblow for his study of more than 500 third-form pupils in the city. He heads the department of community health at the Christchurch Clinical School. The study aims to discover the influence parents have on their children’s eating habits and the impact of new health education resource kits used in schools. Introduction of the kits has strong foundation support. The foundation’s medical

director, Dr David Hay, said adopting healthy eating habits at an early age played an important part in preventing heart disease. “We need to find out what influences the choice of foods by young teenagers and whether the provision of good information leads to more healthy eating habits,” he said. Preliminary work has already started on a questionnaire to find out the present diet and nutritionai attitudes of the study group. Students will also be asked to keep a diary of what they eat over a period of several days, a request which Dr Hay said would probably be repeated at different times during the study.