Background

The analysis of the environmental context is indispensable to study the eating habits in adolescents. Feeding practices during the school day the students user surrounding grocery stores of secondary schools in Andalusia and their characteristics are described.

Methods

Descriptive cross-sectional study of 8068 students and 95 secondary schools. Multistage cluster sampling: Stratified random sampling by province and population size and systematic for classrooms. The analysis of the type of store, food supply, distance and visualization from the school and students´ demands was conducted by direct observation and interviews. The socio-demographic characteristics and feeding practices were got through questionnaire.

Results

The schools are surrounded by shops in which the food supply is aimed at students (72, 63 %). Pubs and cafeterias (55), grocery stores and tuck shops predominate. The presence of sweets, processed baked goods and sandwiches is confirmed in all the stores. 25.73% of students buy their school meals in these shops. There are statistically significant relationships between the consumption of sweets and fried packaged packages and to go out the high school during the playground.

Conclusions

The number and characteristics of the stores surrounding the schools require studying its influence over students eating habits in order to establish public health measures to control the detected unhealthy supply.

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