Consumption of selected beverages and teenagers’ perception of own health

Background
Health can be perceived as a set of individual determinants that enable a person to develop in various areas. Some people view their health subjectively to realise their owns goals. The following study aims to investigate health- and eating-related behaviours in young people with regard to selected alcoholic beverages.

Material and methods
The group of people involved in the study consisted of 77 teenagers from a high school aged 17 to 18 years. The mean age of the entire group was 17.1 years (SD = 0.8 years). As for gender, the sample was dominated by women, who accounted for 58.4% (n = 45) of all the respondents, while men − 41.6% (n = 32).

Results
When asked about the significance of good health and proper nutrition for teens, a large number of the girls participating in this survey, i.e. 51.9%, declared that health was important to them, whereas 29.9% claimed that it was very important. Furthermore, the teenagers involved in the study often claimed that they eat healthily (rho = 0.42; p <0.01) and 40.3% perceived their diet as healthy. Only 2.6% of the respondents viewed their diet as improper.

Conclusions
Particular attention should be paid to building a sense of personal responsibility for health in young people. Health promotion programmes targeting young people should be aimed at developing their personality features which are indirectly associated with increasing awareness and responsibility for their own health, encouraging the individual to make right choices with regard to food products, including the type and quantity of beverages available on the market.