Assessment of Fast Food Concumption Among People of Yazd City

Nutrition is one of the Most effective factors for establishment of health.Today, fast food consumption has increased due to changes in life style. Over-consumption of these highcalorie and high-fat foods and the imbalance between energy intake/expenditure has increased therisk of obesity, diabetes and other diseases. This study assessed the status of fast food consumptionamong people of Yazd city

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out on 600 adults in Yazd city usingcluster sampling. method The data of fast-food consumption in Yazdi people over 18 years old weregathered using a researcher-made questionnaire. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire werefigured. The data were then analyzed using SPSS V.16 with using drawing on descriptive statisticsand Chi-square.

About 34% of participant were men and 66% women. 24.7% and 22.1% of participants were between 18-25 and 25-30 years old respectively. More than 90 of participants were in the habit of consuming at least one of the fast food items and only 9.2% of them didnt use fast foods at all.Nearly 82% of them prefered to consume soft drinks and dressings with their fast food. Fast food consumption was observed in 97.5% of the university students and 93.3% of the joblessparticipants.Sixteen point seven percent of the jobless people and 18.8% of the university studentsconsumed fast foods at least 1-2 times per week.

Most of the fast food consumers were men, young, single and student. This finding indicates that young people do not have sufficient knowledge and experience about healthynutrition. They do not believe that chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension can be startedfrom young age. So, they consume fast foods too much. By increasing age, people pay moreattention to health status because of increasing knowledge and risk perception.