Health habits of Greek teens, alarming rise in obesity

One in five Greek teens are struggling in the battle of the bulge, claiming to be permanently on a diet according to the University Mental Health Research Institute (EPIPSY). 30% of teens have a negative image of their body, whereas girls are more likely to be stricter when evaluating their bodies than boys.

Greek teens are more likely to eat fruit and vegetables, not skip breakfast but also keep fit. Two in five teens (43.2%) said that they have breakfast every day and half of the students (51.8%) have breakfast on weekdays. Boys are less likely to skip breakfast than are girls with 54.5% of the boys having breakfast 7 days a week compared to 49% of the girls. The breakfast eaters have risen from 2006-2014 from 43% to 51.8%. 28% of teens stated that they never eat breakfast with their mother or father. One in three teens eat fruit and vegetables at least five days a week (23.5% in 2002 and 31.6% in 2014). Girls eat more fruit than boys with the percentage for fruit consumption for each group being 33.6% and 29.6% respectively.

One in three teens state that they eat sweets or drink soft drinks at least five days a week, a figure that has dropped from 45.4% in 2006 to 32.7% in 2014. Regular sweets and soft drinks increase according to the age of teens (20.5% for 11-year-olds and 41.3% for those aged 15 years).  A small portion of teens aged 15 state that they eat fruit and vegetables once a week but eat sweets or drink soft drinks five times a week.

7.7% of teens drink coffee at least 5-6 days a week with the level for 15-year-olds being 16.3%. One in 9 students state that they drink energy drinks at least once a week, with boys four times as likely to drink energy drinks than girls (18.1% and 4.9% respectively).

One in three teens (36%) exercised at least 60 minutes for five days of the week when they were questioned for the survey with boys at 44.5% and girls at 27.6%. One in seven teens (14.4%) said that they exercised for one day during the week they were questioned. The portion of active teens dropped as the teens grew older with 39.8% of 11-year-olds active, 37.4% of teens at 13 years and 30.7% of teens at 15 years.

One in 12 teens 8.1% are underweight, 21.3% are overweight and 3.9% are overweight. The portion of overweight boys (25.2%) is higher than that of girls (17.5%) One in four (24%) of 11 year olds and one in 5 (21.4%) of 15 year olds and 18.9% of 13 year olds are overweight or fat. From 1998 to 2014, the portion of overweight teens rose from 11% to 21.3%.

The research was conducted for the program titled “Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children” (HBSC, www.hbsc.org) under the aegis of the World Health Organisation.