“A matter of health”: Evaluation of health habits in pupils in Primary School in Serbia

Authors

  • Dragana Milicic University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, 16 Studentski trg, Belgrade
  • Marina Drndarski Primary School ”Drinka Pavlović”, 19 Kosovska, Belgrade
  • Jelena Trajkovic University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, Belgrade
  • Tatjana Savic University of Belgrade, Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković”, Belgrade
  • Luka Lucic University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, Belgrade
  • Sofija Pavkovic-Lucic University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, Belgrade

Keywords:

biology, pupils, school, health habits

Abstract

We interviewed more than 400 primary school pupils from 5th to the  8th grade (aged 11 to 14 years) from the primary school in Belgrade (Serbia) about their habits concerning nutrition, beverage consumption, and time spend in front of a computer, tablet, playing games on consoles, or using a mobile phone. According to study, high percentage of students showed well-established habit of eating breakfast. Also, the overall water consumption prevailed in all grades, since the school ensures students access to safe and free drinking water, as a healthy alternative to consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. However, we found increasing food consumption from bakery and consumption of carbonated drinks both in boys and girls from senior grades (7th and 8th). Also, they spent considerably more time with a computer, tablet, or mobile phone than the pupils from lower grades. About one-third of all surveyed students have been watching television or using a computer more than 3 hours during the day. We found significant increase of BMI, as an indicator of the increasing risk for weight gain and obesity both in boys and girls in senior grades. In the current curriculum of Biology, the topic of human health is studied in the 7th grade, but presented results show that one-year education in health topics is not sufficient. It suggests the necessity of introducing the topic of health in all grades of elementary school, starting from the lowest age.

Published

2018-03-14

How to Cite

[1]
Milicic, D., Drndarski, M., Trajkovic, J., Savic, T., Lucic, L. and Pavkovic-Lucic, S. 2018. “A matter of health”: Evaluation of health habits in pupils in Primary School in Serbia. Journal of BioScience and Biotechnology. 6, 3 (Mar. 2018), 221–225.

Issue

Section

Biological Anthropology