Differences in daily nutritive value of meals and daily intake among schoolchildren accommodated in boarding schools

Abstract

This paper describes a meal analysis that included 17 Croatian boarding schools and 668 girls and 592 boys, aged 14–18, accommodated in them that participated in the questionnaire. The aim is to compare the differences among different boarding schools in one year and to compare the changes according to the years from 1997 to 2001. During the survey several consumption frequencies were found to be low, such as intake of milk, vegetables and fruits if they are not included in the meal offered by the boarding school. The self-administrated food frequency questionnaire correctly describes food consumption in boarding school-accommodated schoolchildren. Moreover, it was well accepted by the target group, and easily understood. The results show that a significant proportion of schoolchildren did not consume enough milk, fruit and vegetables on a daily basis or did not consume it at all.