Abstract
Unhealthy diets consumption in particular early starting in children is a crucial determinant of health
conditions and diseases. There is less research on diet purchasing and eating behaviors among children in Thailand. The objectives of this study were to explore food and beverages purchasing and eating behaviors
of primary grade 6 students. A hundred of students were randomly selected from 453 students in two
provinces. The students were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire on food and beverages
consumption. They received a certain amount of cashes to buy any food and beverages in convenience
stores; type and prices of food and beverages they bought together with purchasing behaviors were observed.
To gain more understanding of students’ eating and purchasing behaviors, 39 out of them were
drawn for semi-structured in-depth interview. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were applied to
these data. Of total 100 students, most of them had good eating behaviors as consuming breakfast (89%)
and vegetables and fruit (97%). The proportions of students reported eating unhealthy diets: snack, bakery,
fast food, candy and sweetened beverages were 100%, 98%, 97%, 90.9% and 90.9%, respectively. In
purchasing part, the most bought unhealthy food and beverages were sweetened beverages (91.7%), followed
by snack (67.9%), bakery (46.4%) and candy (39.3%) which expenses were between 21 and 40 baht.
It was explained that not only food and beverage taste and personal preference but also environmental
factors as family roles, availability and location of outlets around schools, and ease to access as arrangement
in front of the counter together with advertisement of unhealthy food and beverages had potentially
influence on students’ eating and purchasing behaviors. The findings of this study illustrate that children
substantially consume unhealthy food and beverages. Therefore, there are needed for more attentions and
measures at both individual and environmental levels.
