Association of sweet taste perception and dietary habits with body mass index among public school children of Belagavi district, South India.

Abstract

Background: Healthy diet is significant for growth, development, and prevention from dietary related diseases in children and adults. Dietary imbalance can lead to many general and oral diseases and sugar rich diet can affect the teeth at an early age and continues towards adolescence causing several oral problems such as dental caries. Frequent consumption of a certain food causes changes in taste perception and leads to preference for that food. Taste perception may also be affected by several environmental, cultural, and genetic factors and has been found to be linked to oral health and body mass index (BMI).

Objective: This study evaluated the association between sweet taste perception, dietary habits, and body mass index among 13-15-year-old public school children in the Belagavi district.

Material and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 1300 school children aged 13-15 years. Data were collected using a self-designed and validated questionnaire to assess dietary habits. Sweet taste perception was evaluated using sweet taste threshold (TT) and sweet taste preference (TP). Based on the sweet taste perception scores, participants were categorized into low, medium, and high groups. Body mass index was calculated using standard criteria. Descriptive statistics, Spearman's correlation test and ANOVA were performed. Statistical significance was considered for p-value ≤ 0.05.

Results: Of the 1300 participants, 625 (48.1%) were males and 675 (51.9%) were females. A majority of the students demonstrated a low sweet taste threshold (78.7%), while 66% exhibited a medium level of sweet taste preference. More than half of the participants (57.8%) were underweight. A statistically significant association was observed between BMI and sweet taste preference (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Sweet taste preference and dietary habits were significantly associated with BMI among adolescents (sugar preference and sugar exposure were positively correlated with BMI, while nutrient score was negatively correlated). These findings suggest that taste perception and dietary behaviours may play an important role in the nutritional status of school-going children.