AStudy on snack-eating behaviors after school among school aged children in four cities

Objective To understand the present situation of school aged children's snack-eating behaviors after school, and to provide a basis for guiding children's reasonable snacks consumption. Methods All students of two schools were selected from each of four cities, namely Shanghai, Chengdu, Beijing, and Yichang, and the snack-eating behaviors after school in total 4 218 school aged children were surveyed by questionnaire. Results The rate of snack consumption after school in the male students was 93.6%, which is significant lower than that (95.6%) in the female students (χ²=8.647, P=0.003). The difference of the rates between the students from the single-child families and whom from non-single-child families was statistically significant (χ²=575.190, P=0.000). The rates raised in accordance with the increase of family's income, and the rate in the students from the families monthly income exceeding 15 000 yuan was higher than that from the families monthly income falling in 8 001-15 000 yuan (χ²=74.703, P=0.000).The favorite snacks include potato and puffed food (83.3%), beans and its products (83.0%), vegetables and fruits (78.4%), meat, seafood and eggs (76.2%). The reasons for choosing snacks mainly include taste (38.2%), external packaging (29.7%), food safety (28.1%), and nutrition (23.6%). The snack-eating time were different between different genders and among different aged children. The source of snacks were mainly from family prepared (81.4%) and bought by themselves (16.1%). Conclusion Some problems were still existed in snack-eating behaviors after school among school aged children, which needs to be guided and improved.