Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS)

Fast food consumption was assessed with the question “During the past 7 days, on how many days did you eat food from a fast food restaurant?” with country specific examples on fast food restaurants. Those who consumed fast food on at least one day in the past 7 days were considered to be consumers of fast food.

Reference: 

Jacob L, Stubbs B, Firth J, Smith L, Haro JM, Koyanagi A. Fast food consumption and suicide attempts among adolescents aged 12-15 years from 32 countries. J Affect Disord. 2020 Apr 1;266:63-70. 

Fast-food outlets

Students were asked to report on frequency of fast-food consumption expressed in the question, ‘How many times a week do you usually eat fast food?’ Students were prompted with examples of food items such as burgers, sausages, pizza and shawarma (response key: 1=never, 2=<once/week, 3=once/week, 4=2–4d/week, 5=5–6d/week, 6=once/d, 7=>once/d). Questions and key response categories were tested prior to survey administration. Based on the response distribution, we dichotomized the outcome measure to reflect fast-food consumption of at least weekly (≥1 time/week) v. less than weekly (<1 time/week). 

Reference: 

Svastisalee C, Pagh Pedersen T, Schipperijn J, Ellegaard J?rgensen S, Holstein BE, Kr?lner R. Fast-food intake and perceived and objective measures of the local fast-food environment in adolescents. Public Health Nutrition. 2016;19(3):446-455.