Eating behaviours of primary school pupils from Śląskie, Malopolskie and Opolskie Voivodeships in Poland

Background: Nutrition is one of the major environmental factors affecting children’s physical development and health, with nutrition mistakes made in early years of life having short- and long-term health consequences.

Objective: This study has been aimed at evaluating eating behaviours of primary school pupils and determining whether there are relationships between pupils’ eating habits and their area of residence.

Material and methods: The study was conducted in primary schools located in the following voivodeships (administrative units) in Poland: Śląskie, Opolskie and Małopolskie, on a total sample of 1138 pupils. A survey specially designed for the purpose of this study was used to investigate the pupils’ eating behaviours. The findings were then analysed with the use of MS Excel 2010 and Statistica 12.0 software.

Results: According to the survey, 61.42% of pupils in our study ate the recommended number of meals daily. 72.74% reported eating breakfast daily, 66.17% stated they ate packed lunch/midmorning snack daily, 17.49% reported eating wholemeal bread more than once daily, whilst milk and natural yoghurt were consumed daily by 20.04% and 10.81% of pupils, respectively. Sweets and salty snacks were excluded from the diet of 2.2% and 3.08% of pupils respectively. 6.59% of pupils reported not eating fast food at all.

Conclusions: The eating behaviours of primary school pupils differ. Regional variations in eating behaviours have been found to exist, revealing a correlation between the pupils’ area of residence (voivodeship) and some eating behaviours. The largest number of healthy eating behaviours were reported by pupils from Małopolskie Voivodeship.