Basic school pupils’ food purchases during mid-morning break in urban Ghanaian schools

Deda Ogum-Alangea, Richmond N O Aryeetey, Heewon L Gray, Amos K Laar and Richard M K Adanu

PLOS ONE, 2020, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: Background: Unhealthy food vending can expose children to malnutrition and other diet related challenges such as obesity. This study sought to describe types and sources of food in basic schools in urban Accra, and to describe food purchases by pupils. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of five basic schools (3 public; 2 private) and 644 pupils in the Ga-East Municipality in Ghana. Check-lists were used to document available sources of foods during school hours. Pupils were intercepted after making purchases during breaktime and the type, cost and sources of foods purchased documented. Energy content of foods were read from labels when available or estimated using the Ghana Food Composition database when unlabelled. Frequencies and crosstabs were used to compare food type by source and school type. Results: Foods were purchased from school canteen, school store, private stores, and ‘table-top’ vendors. Meals were most frequently purchased (38%) although single purchases were sweetened drinks, savoury snacks and confectioneries. About 53% of retailers located within the schools sold relatively healthier food options. Similar foods with comparable energy content were purchased within and outside of school. Conclusions: Basic schools in urban Ghana provide ready access to energy dense food options, which are purchased by pupils both within and outside of school premises. Timely interventions inclusive of school food policies can encourage healthier diets among pupils.

Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0238308 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 38308&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0238308

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238308

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone (plosone@plos.org).