BackgroundWe aimed to identify different eating habits among Finnish children and to evaluate their association with meal patterns, breakfast consumption, and socio-demographic characteristics in a large, nationwide cohort of children.MethodsWe evaluated 10,569 children aged 9–14 years into the Finnish Health in Teens cohort in a cross-sectional design. The hierarchical K-means method was used to identify groups of children with different eating habits, based on five factors obtained through factor analysis of 10 food items. Multiple correspondence analysis was used to show associations between groups with different eating habits and meal patterns, breakfast patterns, gender, age, and language spoken at home.ResultsAnalyses identified three groups: unhealthy eaters (12.3%), fruit and vegetable avoiders (43.3%), and healthy eaters (44.1%). Most children had regular meal and breakfast patterns. The proportion of boys was higher among unhealthy eaters. Unhealthy eaters also showed irregular meal and breakfast patterns, and had parents with low education level. There was a higher proportion of girls among healthy eaters. Healthy eaters also showed regular meal and breakfast patterns, and had parents with high education level.ConclusionsAlthough the number of unhealthy eaters was small, special attention should be still paid to these, mostly male children, as they have poor eating habits and they lack regular eating routine. Skipping breakfast was more common among older children and girls, although girls had healthier eating habits overall. Our results can contribute to public health efforts to improve eating behaviours, especially among children with poor eating habits and those skipping healthy food items.

Objective:To investigate the association between eating habits and weight status in adolescents in Finland.Design:Cross-sectional study.Setting:The Finnish Health in Teens (Fin-HIT) study is a cohort study conducted in adolescents attending third to sixth grade in 496 schools in forty-four municipalities in Southern, Middle and Northern Finland in 2011–2014.Participants:Analyses included 10 569 adolescents from the Fin-HIT study aged 9–14 years (5005 boys and 5564 girls). Adolescents were categorized by their eating habits: healthy eaters (44·1 %; n 4661), unhealthy eaters (12·3 %; n 1298), and fruit and vegetable avoiders (43·6 %; n 4610); and they were grouped into weight status: underweight (11·1 %), normal weight (73·6 %) and excess weight (15·3 %).Results:We found an increased risk of underweight in fruit and vegetable avoiders (OR = 1·28; 95 % CI 1·12, 1·46). An irregular breakfast pattern showed an inverse association with underweight (OR = 0·70; 95 % CI 0·59, 0·84) and an increased risk of excess weight (OR = 1·56; 95 % CI 1·37, 1·77) compared with a regular breakfast pattern. An irregular dinner pattern was inversely associated with underweight (OR = 0·83; 95 % CI 0·69, 0·99) compared with a regular dinner pattern.Conclusions:Avoiding fruits and vegetables and following irregular breakfast and dinner patterns were associated with underweight and excess weight in adolescents.

Introduction: The global epidemic of obesity concerns children, and monitoring the prevalence is of highest priority. Body mass index (BMI) with age- and sex-specific cut-off values determine weight status in children, although multiple reference systems exist. Our aim was to compare the prevalence for thinness, normal weight, overweight and obesity in Finnish school-aged children according to national and international reference values, as well as to determine which cut-off values for overweight agree with the criteria for central obesity. Methods: This study includes 10 646 children aged 9─12 years from the Finnish Health in Teens (Fin-HIT) cohort. Height, weight and waist circumference were measured in 2011─2014. BMI (weight [kg]/height [m]2) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR; waist [cm]/height [cm]) were calculated. The WHtR cut-off of > 0.5 indicated central obesity. We compared the sex-specific prevalence of thinness, overweight and obesity using the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF), World Health Organization (WHO) and Finnish (FIN) BMI-for-age reference values, as well as these three against central obesity based on WHtR. Results: The prevalence of thinness, overweight and obesity were 11.0%, 12.7% and 2.6%, respectively, using IOTF; 2.6%, 15.9% and 5.2% using WHO; and 5.1%, 11.4% and 2.2% using FIN. Overweight and obesity were more common in boys than girls using WHO and FIN, while thinness more common in girls using IOTF and FIN. IOTF versus WHO exhibited moderate agreement (κ = 0.59), which improved for IOTF versus FIN (κ = 0.74). Of those classified as overweight by WHO, 37% and 47% were regarded as normal weight according to IOTF and FIN, respectively. The prevalence of central obesity was 8.7%, and it was more common in boys than girls. WHO provided the highest sensitivity: 95% of individuals with central obesity were classified with overweight or obesity. Using FIN provided the highest specificity (93%). Conclusion: Our findings show that WHO overestimates the prevalence of overweight and obesity, while IOTF overrates thinness. Thus, comparing prevalence rates between studies requires caution. The novelty of this study is the comparison of the cut-off values for overweight with central obesity. The choice of reference system affects the generalizability of the research results.

Background: Diet may influence health directly or indirectly via the human microbiota, emphasizing the need to unravel these complex relationships for future health benefits. Associations between eating habits and gut microbiota have been shown, but less is known about the association between eating habits and saliva microbiota. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate if eating habits and meal patterns are associated with the saliva microbiota. Methods: In total, 842 adolescents, aged 11-14 years, from the Finnish Health in Teens (Fin-HIT) study cohort were included in this study. Eating habits and breakfast and dinner patterns were derived from a web-based questionnaire answered in school. Three major eating habit groups were identified: fruit and vegetable avoiders (FV avoiders), healthy and unhealthy. Microbiota profiles were produced from 16S rRNA gene (V3-V4) sequencing of DNA from the saliva samples. Statistical models were adjusted for gender, age, parental language, body mass index (BMI) categories, and sequencing depth. Results: Regular breakfast eaters had a higher alpha diversity (Shannon index with mean (standard error of means) 2.27 (0.03) vs. 2.22 (0.03), p = 0.06, inverse Simpson's index with 6.27 (0.17) vs. 5.80 (0.02), p = 0.01), and slight differences in bacterial composition (PERMANOVA: p = 0.001) compared with irregular breakfast eaters. A similar trend in alpha diversity was observed between regular and irregular dinner eaters (Shannon index with 2.27 (0.03) vs. 2.22 (0.03), p = 0.054, inverse Simpson's index with 6.23 (0.17) vs. 6.04 (0.22), p = 0.28), while no difference was found in composition (PERMANOVA: p = 0.08). No differences were identified between eating habit groups and saliva microbiota diversity (Shannon index p = 0.77, inverse Simpson's index p = 0.94) or composition (PERMANOVA: p = 0.13). FV avoiders, irregular breakfast eaters and irregular dinner eaters had high abundances of Prevotella. Conclusion: Regularity of eating, especially breakfast eating, was associated with more diverse saliva microbiota and different composition compared with irregular eaters.