Evaluating Eating Patterns of Toddlers from Low-income Households:A Multi-method Approach to Understanding Eating Behaviors of Young Children

dietary patterns;eating behaviors;children;not listed

Lynch, Krystal LynnPaige, David M. ;

Johns Hopkins University

关键词: dietary patterns;    eating behaviors;    children;    not listed;   

Others  :  https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/39340/LYNCH-DISSERTATION-2015.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: JOHNS HOPKINS DSpace Repository

【 摘 要 】

Toddlerhood represents a period of change. As children develop physically and mentally, children learn and develop habits that will continue for years. This is also a time where children are adapting to the family diet, and developing dietary preferences and habits. While studies have been conducted to evaluate these changes during toddlerhood, much is still unknown about the dietary pattern development and changes that occur over toddlerhood in low-income populations at risk for obesity.Knowledge about dietary patterns at this age is important in shaping the development of recommendations for dietary intake and promoting dietary quality in children.This body of work is an evaluation of early child diet patterns and a comparison of 4 different assessment methods.The purpose is to characterize the diets of young children in low-income families, while demonstrating the strengths and limitations of these methods. The goal is to present a comprehensive assessment of how children in this population are fed, and what improvements could be stressed in order to improve diet quality and promote long-term health. The data for this study was collected in the Toddler Overweight Prevention/ Tips on Parenting Study (TOPS) which was a 3-arm randomized trial of two interventions. This study was led by investigators at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and data from the baseline assessments prior to the intervention are included in this work. This evaluation includes 3 analyses. The first utilizes 2 different diet index summary methods, the Mean Adequacy Ratio, and the 2005 Healthy Eating Index to assess diet quality compared to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Dietary Reference Intake values for 11 select vitamins and minerals. Factors associated with diet quality were also assessed. This analysis revealed that the maternal diet has a significant influence on the quality of the child diet, even when controlling for potential covariates, such as poverty/income.The second analysis identifies clusters of children with similar dietary intake patterns by cluster analysis, investigating the differences between the patterns. This analysis reveals 4 different patterns, and evaluatesthe relationship between the dietary patterns and diet quality. Lastly, the third analysis utilizes a mixed-methods approach to evaluating meal structure patterns. Less structured patterns were more common among children with the lowest dietary quality scores in the sample.The entire work reveals that dietary guidance should include information about increasing whole grain intake, beverage consumption (type and portion size), and structured meal environments in order to increase diet quality as related to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans among low-income children. In regard to nutrient intake, most children meet or exceed the Recommended Daily Allowances for the vitamins and minerals assessed. Dietary guidance should consider the balance between intake of nutrients and food groups to promote the healthiest outcomes.