Perceived healthiness leading to unhealthy Snacking among early adolescents in an urban municipality area of Sri Lanka: Descriptive cross-sectional study 

Perceived healthiness leading to unhealthy Snacking among early adolescents in an urban municipality area of Sri Lanka: Descriptive cross-sectional study | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Perceived healthiness leading to unhealthy Snacking among early adolescents in an urban municipality area of Sri Lanka: Descriptive cross-sectional study Amali Maheshika Thrimavithana This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4826245/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Snacking prevalence in all age groups has increased across the globe over the years. Adolescents are a vulnerable population for unhealthy snacking and can be the ideal target group for early nutrition interventions for behavioral changes. Objective: To assess the snacking behavior, its determinants and its association with nutritional status among students of Grade 6–9 in schools of Galle Municipality area. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 540 early adolescents in Grades 6–9 of Government schools in Galle Municipality area, recruited using multistage cluster sampling. A pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire was used. Associations were assessed using Chi-square test. Results: The prevalence of snacking in the sample was 96.1% and the prevalence of unhealthy snacking was 22.2%. Snacks were taken 1–2 times a day in 81.8%. Snacks were chosen by themselves (38.5%) and in 50.2% the reason was the perceived “healthiness” of the snacks. The evening was the preferred snacking time (49.1%), the context was teatime (62.8%), followed by watching TV (43.0%). The popular snacks were biscuits (43.7%), chips (31.9%) and pastries (22.2%). Nearly 90% replaced main meals with a snack. Significant associations of unhealthy snacking snacking at tea time (p = 0.032) were found. Associations were not significant between unhealthy snacking and gender, parental education status or other contextual factors such as place of stay, and mode of travelling (p > 0.05). The association of Nutritional status and unhealthy snacking was not significant (p > 0.05). Conclusions and recommendations: Snaking behaviour is common among almost all adolescents. Unhealthy snacking is less prevalent and shows associations with income and availability/use of pocket money for snacks. Nutrition interventions should be conducted focusing on adolescents as well as families to change unhealthy snacking behavior. Unhealthy Snacking Adolescents Perceived Healthiness Nutritional Status Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4826245","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":334018076,"identity":"97310696-be0d-463e-8ed9-210cac72ac01","order_by":0,"name":"Amali Maheshika Thrimavithana","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"University of Ruhuna","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Amali","middleName":"Maheshika","lastName":"Thrimavithana","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-07-30 06:45:07","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4826245/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4826245/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":89891606,"identity":"347560e4-34a4-4d7b-a011-3f5ca635ee4c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-26 07:39:54","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":861873,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Article.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4826245/v1_covered_3195b2d7-b9ad-4d9e-94c8-e1ea1e7a2092.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Perceived healthiness leading to unhealthy Snacking among early adolescents in an urban municipality area of Sri Lanka: Descriptive cross-sectional study ","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Unhealthy Snacking, Adolescents, Perceived Healthiness Nutritional Status","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4826245/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4826245/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eSnacking prevalence in all age groups has increased across the globe over the years. Adolescents are a vulnerable population for unhealthy snacking and can be the ideal target group for early nutrition interventions for behavioral changes.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eObjective: To assess the snacking behavior, its determinants and its association with nutritional status among students of Grade 6–9 in schools of Galle Municipality area.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMethods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 540 early adolescents in Grades 6–9 of Government schools in Galle Municipality area, recruited using multistage cluster sampling. A pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire was used. Associations were assessed using Chi-square test.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eResults: The prevalence of snacking in the sample was 96.1% and the prevalence of unhealthy snacking was 22.2%. Snacks were taken 1–2 times a day in 81.8%. Snacks were chosen by themselves (38.5%) and in 50.2% the reason was the perceived “healthiness” of the snacks. The evening was the preferred snacking time (49.1%), the context was teatime (62.8%), followed by watching TV (43.0%). The popular snacks were biscuits (43.7%), chips (31.9%) and pastries (22.2%). Nearly 90% replaced main meals with a snack. Significant associations of unhealthy snacking snacking at tea time (p = 0.032) were found. Associations were not significant between unhealthy snacking and gender, parental education status or other contextual factors such as place of stay, and mode of travelling (p \u0026gt; 0.05). The association of Nutritional status and unhealthy snacking was not significant (p \u0026gt; 0.05).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConclusions and recommendations: Snaking behaviour is common among almost all adolescents. Unhealthy snacking is less prevalent and shows associations with income and availability/use of pocket money for snacks. Nutrition interventions should be conducted focusing on adolescents as well as families to change unhealthy snacking behavior.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Perceived healthiness leading to unhealthy Snacking among early adolescents in an urban municipality area of Sri Lanka: Descriptive cross-sectional study ","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-08-26 16:53:02","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4826245/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"736bc59f-4472-488e-b2b0-b5a5ae35c8b3","owner":[],"postedDate":"August 26th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-08-26T07:39:43+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-08-26 16:53:02","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4826245","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4826245","identity":"rs-4826245","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}