Associations between maternal diet, family eating habits and preschool children’s dietary patterns: insights from the UPBEAT trial
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Dietary behaviours in early life often track across the life course, influencing the development of adverse health outcomes such as obesity and cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to explore the between dietary patterns (DP) in preschool children and maternal DP and family eating habits. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of 488 mother-child pairs from the UK pregnancy Better Eating and Activity Trial (UPBEAT) at 3-year follow-up. Previously published DP from mothers and children (derived from food-frequency questionnaires and exploratory factor analysis) were used. Mothers' DP were "Fruits-Vegetables", "African-Caribbean", "Processed and Snacks", and children's DP were "Prudent", "Processed-Snacking", and "African-Caribbean". Family meal environments were evaluated using a 5-point Likert scale. RESULTS: Linear regression models revealed that child's prudent pattern was positively associated with maternal Fruits-Vegetables (B = 0.18 (0.08, 0.27)), Snacks patterns (B = 0.10 (0.01, 0.18)), and eating the same foods during meals (B = 0.25 (0.07, 0.43)). Child's Processed-Snacking pattern was directly associated with maternal Processed (B = 0.22 (0.13, 0.30)) and Snacks (B = 0.27 (0.18, 0.36)) patterns, receiving food as reward (B = 0.22 (0.04, 0.39)) and watching TV during meals (B = 0.27 (0.09, 0.45)). Finally, the child African-Caribbean pattern was directly associated with that from the mother (B = 0.41 (0.33, 0.50)) and watching TV during meals (B = 0.15 (0.09, 0.30)), and inversely associated with maternal processed (B=-0.09 (-0.17, -0.02)) and snacking (B=-0.08 (-0.15, -0.04)) patterns. CONCLUSIONS: Unhealthy dietary patterns in childhood are directly linked to similar maternal patterns and family meal behaviours, such as television viewing and food rewards. These findings highlight targetable behaviours for public health interventions.
Source: Nutrition Journal
Language: English
Topic: Nutritional Studies and Diet
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,090
Funders: Joint Programming Initiative A healthy diet for a healthy life, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Tommy's Baby Charity, Guy's and St Thomas' Charity, European Commission, King's Health Partners, Generalitat de Catalunya, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Tommy's, Chief Scientist Office, Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate, Medical Research Council, Seventh Framework Programme, Programme Grants for Applied Research, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, NextGenerationEU
Awards: G1093531541, G1563105402, G1652070670, G2473961061, G2566874064, G279363373, G2905090494, G297885364, G3005324705, Statistical modelling to characterise the dietary determinants of health outcomes in mothers and their children., ERA-Net on INtesTInal MICrobiomics, diet and health, implementing JPI HDHL objectives, G4653281258, G4754239851, G5605571342, G6054710752, G6470444756, G7709814651, G8537530744, Long-term effects of early nutrition on later health
OpenAlex ID: W4402941438