Association of neighborhood food environment status and food purchasing behavior with dietary quality among school-aged, urban, low-income adolescents living in Kuala Lumpur

Norddin, Nurfarhana (2021) Association of neighborhood food environment status and food purchasing behavior with dietary quality among school-aged, urban, low-income adolescents living in Kuala Lumpur. [Project Paper] (Submitted)

Text FPSK3 2021 37.pdf Download (7MB)

Abstract

Disparity in the neighborhood food environment (NFE) and the trend of healthy food prices put urban poor adolescents at high risk of unhealthy diets and obesity. Thus this study aimed to investigate the relationship between NFE statuses and food beverages purchasing behavior with dietary quality among adolescents from family B40 (Below 40) in Kuala Lumpur. This cross-sectional study involves 184 adolescents from six public secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur. The online self-administered questionnaire through Google Form was used to obtain information regarding adolescents' sociodemographic factors, dietary quality (Adolescent Nutrition Survey FFQ), perceived availability, accessibility, affordability of NFE, and purchasing behavior. Using Geographic Information System (GIS), home addresses were mapped for food deserts/food swamps NFE status. Associations were examined using Pearson correlation and Chi-Square Test. Overall, adolescents' dietary quality is reported as ‘requires improvement’ (62.0%). The majority (60.3%) resided in healthy food environment and only minority live in food swamps (37.0%) and in food deserts (2.7%). While greater number of them perceived to have high food availability (76.6%) and affordability (64.7%), they perceived low accessibility (51.7%) to healthy food stores in their neighbourhood. Majority (33.2%) of them also perceived never used online food delivery (OFD) service prior a month. Age (rs = -0.185), ethnicity (X2= 5.745), fathers' educational level (rs = 0.150), non-fast-food restaurants (NFFR) (r =-0.161) and convenience stores (rs =-0.197) were significantly correlated with adolescents' dietary quality (p < 0.05). However, all food and beverage purchasing determinants are non-correlated (p > 0.05). Thus, the dietary quality of urban poor adolescents in Kuala Lumpur is described as requiring improvement. Access to retailers should be enhanced and the number of NFFR and the availability of convenience stores in the neighbourhood may need to be monitored. Intervention programs should focus on older adolescents and ethnicity when planning initiatives to improve teenager’s dietary quality.

Item Type:	Project Paper
Faculty:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Science
Depositing User:	Ms Norafizah Radzuan
Date Deposited:	04 Sep 2023 06:58
Last Modified:	04 Sep 2023 06:58
URI:	http://psaspb.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/1418

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