Influence of snack consumption behaviors on obesity in young females aged 11 to 40 years

ObjectiveTo assess the association of snack consumption behaviors with obesity status among young females and to provide reference for nutritional policy.MethodsThe 3-day diet weight measurement and accounting for whole family,24-hour dietary recall for individual,and physical examination were conducted among the females aged 11-40 years randomly selected with multi-stratified cluster sampleing form 480 households in 2 urban and 2 rural areas in the years of 1997,2000,2004,2006,and 2009.ResultsThe prevalence of snack consumption in the evening increased significantly from 38.8% in 1997 to 52.1% in 2009.The location of snack consumption was primarily at home,with an average prevalence of 68.2%.In the past years,the proportion of total daily energy from snaks and the body mass index among the females presented a rising tendency.The univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that eating snacks, age,frequency of snack consumptiion,proportion of total daily energy from snack were main risk factors for obesity with the odds ratios of 1.354,1.742,1.413,and 1.327,respectively.ConclusionSnack consumption is prevalent in young female and unhealthy consumption behavior increases and becomes one of the primary risk factors of obesity.