National Dietary Survey of the children of Cyprus

Abstract

The project CY 2014-2017-Lot1 is a dietary survey conducted in Cyprus and funded through an EFSA procurement under the EU Menu Project. Its objective is to use harmonised methodology for the food consumption survey for children aged zero to nine years old, in a way to be able to transfer the collected data to EFSA according to the specific requirements. A multistage sampling procedure was used for selection of the three age groups (infants 0 to 11 months old, toddlers 12 to 35 months old and children three to nine years old) using the list of private sector's paediatricians & public hospitals (for infants & toddlers) and pre-primary & elementary schools (for children) respectively. The sampling procedure ensured that 25% of selected participants in each age-group were surveyed in each season to capture inter-season variability in consumption. The target sample size was 300 participants for each age group. Well-trained personnel explained to the parents how to record what their child has consumed so as to extract the maximum possible detail. To determine portion size electronic scales and a picture book were given to parents. A short food frequency questionnaire was administered; measures of height and weight were taken. Interviewers were giving oral and written instructions to parents on how to fill in a three non-consecutive days dietary record on their first meeting at the participant's home. The "Greek Diet" software has been evaluated for its compatibility with EFSA requirements and updated/upgraded accordingly. All the food consumption data collected were coded according to FoodEx2 and were transmitted to EFSA. In total data from 848 children were collected. The overall response rate was 65%.

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) .…”