Meal patterns among children and adolescents and their associations with weight status and parental characteristics

Objective: In many studies it has been shown that breakfast is associated with normal weight in children and adolescents. Other meals, family meals and a regular meal pattern have been less studied. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine whether a regular meal pattern, or breakfast, lunch or dinner as separate regular meals, is associated with the BMI of children. Design: A cross-sectional study conducted within the Helsinki region during 2006. Study participants were measured and weighed by research staff. Children filled in a study questionnaire on their health behaviour, including the frequency of consuming meals. A regular meal was defined as one usually eaten on every school day. A regular meal pattern was defined as one consisting of a usual consumption of breakfast, school lunch and dinner on every school day. Covariance analysis was used as the statistical analysis method. Setting: Capital region, Finland, 2006. Subjects: A total of 604 schoolchildren (312 girls) aged 9-11 years. Results: Irregular breakfast and an irregular meal pattern were associated with higher BMI. Regularity of school lunch, dinner or family dinner was not associated with BMI. Conclusions: A regular breakfast and meal pattern was associated with lower BMI in children, although breakfast was the only single meal associated with BMI. We conclude that, although the association between breakfast and weight status in children is fairly consistent, the role of other meals is less convincing.

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 70%

Meal pattern and BMI in 9–11-year-old children in Finland

Lehto

Ray

Lahti-Koski³

et al. 2010

“…The increased focus on the importance of regular meals may positively have influenced the finding of no changes in meal patterns during 8 years in the present study. Breakfast represents a healthy habit and associations with positive health outcomes have been widely described (20) , ranging from reduced prevalence of overweight (21) via improved dietary quality (1) to -'All meals' includes a sum score of whether breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper was eaten yesterday. Variable is dichotomized into having fewer than 4 meals per day and having 4 meals per day.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The relationship between overweight and meal frequency is still debated; some have found that skipping meals yields higher odds of being overweight (5,11,21) , while others have not detected significant associations (2) . Among the children living with only one parent, there were more breakfast and lunch skippers compared with those living with two parents.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in meal pattern among Norwegian children from 2001 to 2008

Øverby

Stea

Vik

et al. 2011

Objective: The present study aimed to analyse changes in meal pattern among Norwegian children from 2001 to 2008 in general; to analyse associations between meal pattern and gender, parental educational level and number of parents in the household; and to analyse the association between intake of unhealthy snacks, meal pattern and the mentioned variables. Results: There were no significant changes in children's meal pattern from 2001 to 2008. For both years more than 90 % of the participants reported that they had breakfast yesterday, while 95 % had lunch, 94 % had dinner and 82 % had supper. More girls than boys reported that they had lunch yesterday (96 % v. 94 %, P 5 0?03). More children with higher v. lower educated parents reported that they had breakfast yesterday (93 % v. 88 %, P , 0?001). More children living with two parents v. one parent had breakfast (93 % v. 88 %, P 5 0?001) and lunch yesterday (97 % v. 93 %, P , 0?001). Conclusions: There were no changes in meal pattern from 2001 to 2008 among Norwegian children. Characteristics associated with skipping meals were living in a one-parent family and having lower educated parents.

“…The presence of a second child in the family was found to be associated with a decrease in the average diet quality score in the age-specific analyses that included both-parent families only and also in analysis of cumulative effects of mothers working full time on adolescent diet quality at (8,11,(30)(31)(32)(33)(34) . By examining the relationship between parental employment status and weekly working hours prospectively, our age-specific analysis has revealed that having mothers stay home in the first three to five years of life was beneficial to their child's diet quality in adolescence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Maternal work hours in early to middle childhood link to later adolescent diet quality

O’Sullivan

Johnson

et al. 2011

Objective: Previous studies on maternal work hours and child diet quality have reported conflicting findings possibly due to differences in study design, lack of a comprehensive measure of diet quality and differing ages of the children under investigation. The present study aimed to prospectively examine the impact of parental work hours from age 1 year to age 14 years on adolescent diet quality. Design: Multivariate linear regression models were used to examine independent associations between parents' work hours at each follow-up and across 14 years and adolescent diet quality at age 14 years.