Perceived Barriers to Healthy Eating and Physical Activity among Adolescents in Seven Arab Countries: A Cross-Cultural Study

Table 7

Significant differences (P value) between males and females for perceived barriers to healthy eating among Arab adolescents (using chi-square test).

Barriers	Algeria	Jordan	Kuwait	Libya	Palestine	Syria	UAE
(A) Personal and environmental barriers to healthy eating
(1) Do not have enough information about a healthy diet	0.128	0.000	0.006	0.000	0.007	0.055	0.006
(2) Do not have motivation to eat healthy diet	0.321	0.248	0.688	0.173	0.031	0.924	0.040
(3) Do not enjoy eating healthy foods	0.71	0.406	0.077	0.310	0.005	0.002	0.131
(4) Do not have skills to plan and shop for preparing and cooking healthy foods	0.683	0.331	0.155	0.036	0.006	0.619	0.251
(5) Do not have access to healthy foods	0.607	0.298	0.000	0.042	0.214	0.019	0.289
(6) Not able to buy healthy foods that are inexpensive	0.035	0.004	0.000	0.282	0.214	0.014	0.017
(B) Social barriers to healthy eating
(1) No parents’ support to eat healthy diet	0.108	0.263	0.000	0.006	0.084	0.015	0.496
(2) No friends’ support to eat healthy diet	0.995	0.125	0.000	0.026	0.090	0.281	0.946
(3) No teachers’ support to eat healthy diet	0.611	0.215	0.000	0.638	0.032	0.110	0.223
(4) Not having time to prepare or eat healthy foods because of school commitment	0.131	0.000	0.589	0.083	0.000	0.012	0.022