Association of Vegetable Consumption with Nutritional Status in Adolescents in Mexico City

Abstract

It has been documented that increased vegetable consumption is associated with preventive effects in some public health problems such as obesity and some chronic noncommunicable diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the association of nutritional status with vegetable consumption in adolescents from Technical High Schools in Mexico City. A sample of 2368 adolescents was obtained who were applied a questionnaire of frequency food consumption and anthropometric measurements were taken, the nutritional diagnosis was obtained with Who Anthro Plus program. The data obtained were analyzed with the statistical package SPSS version 20.0 for Windows Statistics ® . When the correlation of frequency consumption of vegetables with nutritional status, in the final phase, It found that teens who never ate vegetables were more likely to develop obesity (36.0% GI and 36.10% GC), compared with teens who consumed daily (8.9% GI and 2.10% GC), existing difference highly significant. The teenagers of the Technical High School in Mexico City in the intervention group presented a basal daily intake of 15.7% and after the intervention their intake increased to 21.3%. With respect to the control group it started with a daily intake of 12.6% to 14.9% increasing it. An increase was achieved in the daily consumption of vegetables in adolescents of both groups so it is concluded that the intervention was successful.