Eating habits and weight status in Finnish adolescents

Abstract

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.

Meal Regularity Plays a Role in Shaping the Saliva Microbiota

“…Previously, we have linked irregular breakfast to excess weight in Finnish adolescents (Viljakainen et al, 2019). There is strong evidence of an association between an irregular breakfast pattern and overweight and obesity in European children and adolescents (Szajewska and Ruszczynski, 2010;Viljakainen et al, 2019).…”

“…Adolescents filled in a web-based baseline questionnaire, including eating habits and breakfast and dinner patterns on an electronic tablet in school (de Oliveira Figueiredo et al, 2019;Figueiredo et al, 2019;Viljakainen et al, 2019). In addition, participants provided an unstimulated saliva sample, and trained fieldworkers measured their height and weight in a standardized way (Figueiredo et al, 2019) which we used to calculate body mass index (BMI) (kg/m 2 ), described in detail elsewhere (Sarkkola et al, 2016).…”

“…While unhealthy eaters had the highest intake of sweet pastries, sugary juice drinks, fast food (hamburgers or hot dogs), and salty snacks. All eating habit groups included indicatory food items of healthy and unhealthy diets, which were recommended previously by the Health Behavior in School-aged Children study protocol (Currie et al, 2004(Currie et al, , 2010 Breakfast and dinner patterns were considered regular when eaten every school day, otherwise it was considered irregular (de Oliveira Figueiredo et al, 2019;Viljakainen et al, 2019).…”

“…Healthy eating, such as a regular meal pattern, has been suggested to associate with lower BMI in Finnish children (Lehto et al, 2011) and protects from overweight and obesity in Finnish adolescents (Jääskeläinen et al, 2013). Whereas, unhealthy eating habits, including avoiding fruits and vegetables, have been associated with underweight in Finnish adolescents (Viljakainen et al, 2019). In particular, unhealthy eating habits are a concern regarding their effect on unfavorable health outcomes.…”

The Effect of Eating Habits’ Quality on Scholastic Performance in Turkish Adolescents

“…Likewise, in our study we did see that there is a significant relationship between students success and their status as per meal-skipping, with students skipping meals performing lower in terms of TEOG scores. Recently, Viljakainen and colleagues showed that avoiding fruits and vegetables and following irregular breakfast and dinner patterns were all associated with underweight or excess weight in Finnish adolescents [22]. Hence, their work illustrated that optimal weight achievement is more difficult and less likely among adolescent with poor dietary habits.…”