Abstract:
Background: Obesity is a common problem in childhood and adolescence. Eating behaviour is
an important determinant of obesity. Therefore, it was hypothesized that there should be an
association between attitudes towards food advertisements, eating behaviour and Body Mass
Index (BMI).
Objectives: To determine attitudes towards food and beverage advertisements, eating behaviour
and their association with BMI among adolescent school boys in Colombo.
Methods: A school based cross-sectional study was conducted on adolescent boys (15-16 years,
n=120) from a selected boys’ school in Colombo district using cluster sampling method. Self administered ‘Adolescent Food Habit Checklist’ and 5-point Likert scale (developed by the
researchers) were used to assess data on eating behaviour and attitudes towards food and
beverage advertisements respectively. The BMI was calculated to assess the nutritional status.
Bivariate Pearson correlation coefficient test was used to determine the associations.
Results: From the participants 59% were from urban areas and 64.2% had a monthly income
more than 50000 LKR. Regarding the BMI 64.2% had a normal BMI. The underweight,
overweight and obese percentage was 20.0%, 11.7% and 4.2%, respectively. Majority of the
participants (85.6%) had a good consumption of fruit and vegetables but also had a high
consumption of fried food (75.6%). Attitudes regarding advertisements were largely influenced
by the appearance of professionals such as doctors or nutritionists and use of comic visuals and
catchy melodies. There was a negative correlation between attitudes and eating behaviour (r=-
0.341, p=0.020) and there was no statistically significant association between eating behaviour
and BMI (r=0.044, p=0.768).
Conclusions: Unfavorable attitudes toward advertisements regarding food and beverages had a
moderate degree correlation with the unhealthy eating behaviours. Therefore, it is necessary to
regulate the advertisements regarding food and beverages while applying measures to
authenticate the information given in the advertisements. However, there was no statistically
significant correlation between eating behavior and BMI.
