Consumption Pattern and Knowledge about Ill Effects of Junk Food amongst School Children in Urban Area of Jorhat

Introduction: Increased inclination to replace traditional meals with energy-dense imbalanced junk foods is responsible for the inception of many diseases especially Non Communicable Diseases among school going adolescents. Objective: To study the consumption pattern and knowledge about ill effects of junk food in school children of Jorhat urban. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was undertaken in schools of urban area of Jorhat district of Assam over a period of one year from June 2016 to May 2017. Results: Among the study participants who consumed junk food frequently (≥5 days), consumption ranges between 5.6% to 24.1% while those who had the practice of taking junk food infrequently (1-4 days), we found that their habit ranges from 49.4% to 70.8% in different junk food products. Expenditure pattern of pocket money revealed that 33.3% (majority) of the adolescents spend their pocket money to pay vehicle rent, 16% use it to buy chips, 13.5% spend their pocket money to buy ice cream while 6.9% of the adolescents spend it on chocolate. Knowledge on ill effects of junk food revealed that 51.5% (majority) pointed out stomach problem and 16.8 % mentioned obesity as ill effect of junk food consumption while 22.4% of the participants do not know the ill effect of junk food consumption. Conclusion: Consumption of junk food amongst urban school going adolescents in Jorhat district of Assam is highly prevalent. General awareness about the ill effects of junk food amongst the adolescents was average which warrant appropriate public health interventions.