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Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between proxy-reported energy intake, daily food intake and energy density of foods and body mass index (BMI) z-score in 2-9-year-old European children. Methods: From 16,225 children who participated in the identification and prevention of dietary- and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants (IDEFICS) baseline examination, 9,782 children with 24-h proxy dietary information and complete covariate information were included in the analysis. Participating children were classified according to adapted Goldberg cutoffs: underreports, plausible energy reports and overreports. Energy intake, daily food intake and energy density of foods excluding noncaloric beverages were calculated for all eating occasions. Effect of energy intake, daily food intake and energy density of foods on BMI z-score was investigated using multilevel regression models in the full sample and subsample of plausible energy reports. Exposure variables were included separately; daily food intake and energy intake were addressed in a combined model to check for interactions. Results: In the group of plausible energy reports (N = 8,544), energy intake and daily food intake were significantly positively associated with BMI z-score. Energy density of foods was not associated with BMI z-score. In the model including energy intake, food intake and an interaction term, only energy intake showed a significantly positive effect on BMI z-score. In the full sample (N = 9,782), only energy intake was significantly but negatively associated with BMI z-score. Conclusion: Proxy-reporters are subject to misreporting, especially for children in the higher BMI levels. Energy intake is a more important predictor of unhealthy weight development in children than daily food intake. © 2013 The Author(s).

Background Both sleep duration and screen time have been suggested to affect children’s diet, although in different directions and presumably through different pathways. The present cross-sectional study aimed to simultaneously investigate the associations between sleep duration, screen time and food consumption frequencies in children. Methods The analysis was based on 10 453 children aged 6–9 years from five European countries that participated in the World Health Organization European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative. Logistic multilevel models were used to assess associations of parent-reported screen time as well as sleep duration (exposure variables) with consumption frequencies of 16 food items (outcome variables). All models were adjusted for age, sex, outdoor play time, maximum educational level of parents and sleep duration or screen time, depending on the exposure under investigation. Results One additional hour of screen time was associated with increased consumption frequencies of ‘soft drinks containing sugar’ (1.28 [1.19;1.39]; odds ratio and 99% confidence interval), ‘diet/light soft drinks’ (1.21 [1.14;1.29]), ‘flavoured milk’ (1.18 [1.08;1.28]), ‘candy bars or chocolate’ (1.31 [1.22;1.40]), ‘biscuits, cakes, doughnuts or pies’ (1.22 [1.14;1.30]), ‘potato chips (crisps), corn chips, popcorn or peanuts’ (1.32 [1.20;1.45]), ‘pizza, French fries (chips), hamburgers’(1.30 [1.18;1.43]) and with a reduced consumption frequency of ‘vegetables (excluding potatoes)’ (0.89 [0.83;0.95]) and ‘fresh fruits’ (0.91 [0.86;0.97]). Conversely, one additional hour of sleep duration was found to be associated with increased consumption frequencies of ‘fresh fruits’ (1.11 [1.04;1.18]) and ‘vegetables (excluding potatoes)’ (1.14 [1.07;1.23]). Conclusion The results suggest a potential relation between high screen time exposure and increased consumption frequencies of foods high in fat, free sugar or salt whereas long sleep duration may favourably be related to children’s food choices. Both screen time and sleep duration are modifiable behaviours that may be tackled in childhood obesity prevention efforts. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-1793-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.