THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENERGY DENSITY AND SNACKING BEHAVIOR AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF TEENAGERS IN MEDAN

Objectives: Nutritional status is a state of the body that can be affected by energy density of food and snacking behavior. The purpose of this research is to determine the relationship between energy density and snacking behavior and nutritional status of an individual.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional research. The data collection technique for energy density is food-recall in 3x24 hours. The data on snacking behavior was obtained using questionnaire. Nutritional status data was obtained using anthropometric measurements of weight/height. The data was analyzed descriptively and using Spearman’s rank correlation, and multiple linear regression.
Results: The results show that the energy density of teenager is 57% (high category), snacking behavior is 68% (good), and nutritional status is 43.40% (over) There is a positive and significant relationship between energy density and nutritional status with r = 0.588 (p<0.05), and a positive and significant relationship between snacking behavior and nutritional status with r = 0.613 (p<0.05). There is a negative and significant relationship between energy density, snacking behavior, and nutritional status (0.000<0.05)
Conclusions: There is a relationship between energy density and snacking behavior, and nutritional status of teenagers. Family, school, and education play a big role in preventing consumption of high-energy density food and snacking behavior which affect nutritional status.