A study of healthy food intake, physical activity, nutritional status and media literacy on food advertisement among school children / Nurul Zulaika Habib Rahman…[et al.]

Television food advertisements are widely broadcasted to people of all age groups including children, thus they are capable of influencing people's food intake. Children are more prone to be affected by the television advertisements, for example unhealthy foods that are calorie-dense nutrient-poor foods. As a result, media illiterate children are prone to the influence of unhealthy food products. Furthermore, little publication on effect of media literacy on food intake is found in Malaysia. This study aims (i) to assess children's media literacy on television food advertisement, (ii) to assess the children's knowledge about healthy food, their food preferences as •well as their food intake, (iii) to assess the time spent watching television and their physical activity level and (iv) to measure nutritional status among children. A total of 398 students (169 males and 229 females) aged ten and eleven years old from three selected rural schools located in Sungai Buloh, Selangor were involved in this cross sectional study. The instrument used was a questionnaire titled "Kajian Kesan Pendidikan Literasi Media (Celik Media) Tentang Pengiklanan Makanan di Televisyen Terhadap Kanak-Kanak Sekolah" by Zalma Razak which contains questions on knowledge on television food advertisements, food preferences, knowledge on healthy food and food preferences and translated physical activity questionnaire for older children that focused on the frequency of being physically active preferably after school sessions and during recess. All students from two classes from each standard four and standard five were chosen randomly. The data of this study were analysed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 17.0 and the body mass index was categorised by using the World Health Organization BMI-for age chart. The mean BMI for male and female students were 18.9 ±5.5 and 18.5 ±5.2 respectively. Result shows the mean score for media literacy knowledge among children was 3.63 ±1.43. Apart from that it outlines that there is no significant association between media literacy with food preferences, knowledge on healthy food, food intake as well as physical activity with p= 0.19, p= 0.52, p=1.00, p=0.41 respectively. Majority of the students watched television more than three hours per day, which exceeding the recommendations made by American Academy of Paediatric. In conclusion, adequate understanding about media literacy