Familial Resemblance in Dietary Intakes of Children, Adolescents, and Parents: Does Dietary Quality Play a Role?

Abstract

Information on familial resemblance is important for the design of effective family-based interventions. We aimed to quantify familial correlations and estimate the proportion of variation attributable to genetic and shared environmental effects (i.e., familiality) for dietary intake variables and determine whether they vary by generation, sex, dietary quality, or by the age of the children. The study sample consisted of 1435 families (1007 mothers, 438 fathers, 1035 daughters, and 1080 sons) from the multi-center I.Family study. Dietary intake was assessed in parents and their 2–19 years old children using repeated 24-h dietary recalls, from which the usual energy and food intakes were estimated with the U.S. National Cancer Institute Method. Food items were categorized as healthy or unhealthy based on their sugar, fat, and fiber content. Interclass and intraclass correlations were calculated for relative pairs. Familiality was estimated using variance component methods. Parent–offspring (r = 0.11–0.33), sibling (r = 0.21–0.43), and spouse (r = 0.15–0.33) correlations were modest. Parent–offspring correlations were stronger for the intake of healthy (r = 0.33) than unhealthy (r = 0.10) foods. Familiality estimates were 61% (95% CI: 54–68%) for the intake of fruit and vegetables and the sum of healthy foods and only 30% (95% CI: 23–38%) for the sum of unhealthy foods. Familial factors explained a larger proportion of the variance in healthy food intake (71%; 95% CI: 62–81%) in younger children below the age of 11 than in older children equal or above the age of 11 (48%; 95% CI: 38–58%). Factors shared by family members such as genetics and/or the shared home environment play a stronger role in shaping children’s intake of healthy foods than unhealthy foods. This suggests that family-based interventions are likely to have greater effects when targeting healthy food choices and families with younger children, and that other sorts of intervention are needed to address the intake of unhealthy foods by children.

Like me, like you – relative importance of peers and siblings on children’s fast food consumption and screen time but not sports club participation depends on age

“…In our previous study based on I. Family data, sibling resemblances in food group intake for sister-sister, sister-brother, and brother-brother pairs were about similar in magnitude [3]. Together these results suggest that siblings of the same and opposite sex experience rather similar social environments for eating, but not for screen time, for which siblings of the same sex resembled one another more than opposite-sex siblings.…”

“…As children reach preschool and school age, they may modify their behavior as they spend more time away from home and encounter new social influences. Previous IDEFICS/I.Family research showed that younger siblings tended to be more alike in dietary intake than older siblings [3]. Consistent with this observation, twin studies have shown that the shared family environment is the predominant driver of dietary intake in young children [4], whereas this influence disappears by young adulthood [5,6].…”

“…Family members are more alike in the intake of healthy In model 1e the age difference between the sibling is ≤2.7 years. In model 1f the age difference between siblings is > 2.7 years than unhealthy foods [3], while the opposite is true for friends [37], and friends tend to be particularly similar for snack and fast food consumption [13][14][15][16]38]. With increasing age, children might become more susceptible to peer pressures and peer social norms shaping their dietary and physical activity behavior.…”

A healthy childhood environment helps to combat inherited susceptibility to obesity

“…Energy and dietary fiber intake were assessed by repeated 24 hour dietary recalls [33,34]. Usual intakes for fiber were estimated based on the validated National Cancer Institute (NCI) method, which is one of the most widely accepted methods for this purpose [35,36].…”

Dietary Phytochemicals in Fiber, Fruits and Vegetables, Why is this Still Relevant?

“…Most recent published information indicates dietary phytochemicals play a tremendous role in the prevention of cancer if consumed in adequate quantities and in combination with other lifestyle choices. Mostly positive epidemiological association have been reported between dietary phytochemical consumption and colon cancer, breast cancer, stomach cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, endometrial and other cancers [1][2][3]. The amount of dietary phytochemicals consumed in most of these studies is typically determined by food recalls, food questionnaires, and food diaries analyzed through different diet analysis software.…”