Croatian national food consumption survey on children from 3 months to 9 years of age

Abstract

The National food consumption survey on children aged from three months to nine years of age in Croatia was implemented from 2017 to 2022. It is the first harmonized food consumption survey among children in Croatia following the EU Menu methodology designed by EFSA to collect comparable among countries data. Data were collected in all seasons and days of the week in order to cover seasonal and day‐to‐day variation in food consumption. In addition to food consumption, data on socio‐economic factors, anthropometry, health status, physical activity and food supplement consumption were also collected. Fieldwork was carried out by trained interviewers. Dietary intake was recorded through food diaries collected by participants and checked by the interviewers before being integrated in the specially designed NutriCro® software. During the first interview, data reported through other questionnaires were also entered by the interviewers in the database through the software. Prior to the main fieldwork, a pilot study was conducted from February to March 2019, which resulted in several adaptations of the tools used for data collection. Ultimately, 1820 children were included in the study with an overall response rate of 22.76%. Collected data provide insight into the nutrition of this most vulnerable population group, which is of paramount importance for national programs on food safety.

Current perspectives and challenges in the estimation of fruit juice consumption across the lifecycle in Europe

“…Of the 53 countries of the WHO EU Region, only 35 had conducted national food consumption surveys (Table 1) . Of these, 13 countries did not publish their summary data in the online public domain (70)(71)(72)(73)(74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79)(80)(81)(82)(83)(84)(85)(86)(87) and a further 8 countries had food consumption data which was unsuitable for inclusion in this review (i.e., did not report FJ intakes separately, did not report population intakes (g/d, ml/d) or included other dietary components in the reporting of FJ intakes) (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)37,38,51) . In total, data from 14 countries across Europe were available for inclusion in this review (34)(35)(36)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(52)…”

“…For infants, FJ intake data were available for 8 countries; France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the (27,28) Children (37,38) Children Countries with no national food consumption survey found for inclusion: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhastan, Kyrgzstan, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, Republic of Moldova, San Marino, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan. Countries which have conducted national food consumption surveys but did not publish their summary data in the online public domain: Croatia (70,71) , Cyprus (72,73) , Greece (74) , Hungary (75,76) , Israel (77,78) , Latvia (79) , Poland (80) , Romania (81) , Russian Federation (82) , Slovakia (83) , Slovenia (84,85) , The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (86) , Turkey (87) .…”

Cross-cultural adaptation and reproducibility of the EPIC-Norfolk food frequency questionnaire in young people living in Croatia

“…There is no questionnaire in the Croatian language that is easy to administer and that provides software for data processing. Although the EPIC-Norfolk FFQ was designed primarily for the adult population in the UK, the food list is similar to that from the national food consumption survey in Croatia conducted in 2011 and 2012 ( 9 ). The EPIC Norfolk FFQ was validated for children and adolescents in Italy ( 10 ) and in young adults in Lebanon ( 11 ).…”