Search

Adoption of healthy dietary and snacking habits could support optimum physical and mental development in children as they define health in adulthood. This study assessed parameters associated with children's snacking such as food home availability, parenting practices, and parents' health beliefs. In this cross-sectional study 12 039 children, 49·4% boys 5–12 years, participating in the European Feel4Diabetes-Study were included. Children's weekly consumption of sweets and salty snacks, home availability of snacks, food parenting practices, and health beliefs were assessed via questionnaires. Logistic regression was applied to explore associations of a) home availability of snacks, b) food parenting practices (permissiveness and rewarding with snacks) and c) parent's opinions on deterministic health beliefs with children's consumption of sweets and salty snacks. Results showed that home availability (sweets: ORadj: 4·76, 95 % CI: 4·32, 5·23; salty snacks: ORadj: 6·56, 95 % CI: 5·64, 7·61), allowing to consume (sweets: ORadj: 3·29, 95 % CI: 2·95, 3·67; salty snacks: ORadj: 3·41, 95 % CI: 2·98, 3·90) and rewarding with sweets/salty snacks (sweets: ORadj: 2·69, 95 % CI: 2·23, 3·24; salty snacks: ORadj: 4·34, 95 % CI: 3·57, 5·28) 'sometimes/or less frequently' compared to 'always/or often' were associated with lower weekly consumption of sweets and snacks. Parents' disagreement compared to agreement with deterministic health beliefs and inattentive eating were associated with lower consumption of salty snacks and sweets in children. Overall, the findings of this study indicate that attempts to promote healthy snacking habits in children should aim to improve parental dietary habits, food parenting practices, health beliefs, and reducing home availability of unhealthy foods and snacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Past research has focused on the relationship between mothers' and children's eating habits, although little is known about fathers as potential agents. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between fathers' and children's fruit and vegetable (FV) intake in the context of fathers' education level and family income insecurity. Methods: Cross‐sectional analysis using baseline data from the multicentre Feel4Diabetes Study were collected in 2016. Participants were parent‐dyads (fathers, n = 10,038) and school children (n = 12,041) from six European countries. Socio‐demographic and dietary data were collected using questionnaires. Associations were assessed applying the multinomial logistic regression model. Results: Overall, European children have low FV intake, especially in Southern European countries (Greece, Spain and Hungary). Children with fathers consuming FV daily were more likely to consume fresh fruit (odds ratio [OR] = 2.75; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.95–3.88) and vegetables (OR = 2.55; 95% CI = 1.80–3.60) 1–2 times per day. After adjusting for paternal educational level and family income insecurity significant associations remained for fresh fruit (ORadj = 2.59; 95% CI = 1.82–3.69) and vegetables (ORadj = 1.98; 95% CI = 1.38–2.86). Country differences showed that fathers' educational level and income insecurity might be important factors worth considering for FV intake in Greece. Conclusions: The present study showed that fathers' FV intake was positively associated with children's daily intake of these foods. Implementation of future population‐based strategies promoting FV intake not only in mothers, but also in fathers could be an effective public health initiative to increase FV intake in children. Policy‐makers should give special attention to families dwelling in Southern European regions. Highlights: Fruit and vegetable (FV) intake is an essential component of a healthy diet with respect to overall health benefit effects, strengthening the immune system, and ensuring optimal growth and development in children.European children have low FV intake, especially in Southern European countries (Greece, Spain, and Hungary), and are not meeting the recommended FV intake of at least 400 g day–1.The present study showed that children with fathers consuming FV daily were more likely to consume fresh FVs 1–2 times per day.Implementation of future population‐based strategies promoting FV intake not only in mothers, but also in fathers could be an effective public health initiative to increase FV intake in children. Policy‐makers should give special attention to families dwelling in Southern European regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting healthy snacking is important in addressing malnutrition, overweight and obesity among an ageing population. However, little is known about the factors underlying snacking behaviour in older adults. The present study aimed to explore within- and between-person associations between determinants (i.e. intention, visibility of snacks, social modelling and emotions) and snacking behaviours (i.e. decision to snack, health factor of the snack and portion size) in older adults (60+). Conducting a two-part intensive longitudinal design, data were analysed from forty-eight healthy older adults consisting of (1) an event-based self-report ecological momentary assessment (EMA) diary every time they had a snack and (2) a time-based EMA questionnaire on their phone five times per day. Analysis through generalised linear mixed models indicated that higher intention to snack healthily leads to healthier snacking while higher levels of social modelling and cheerfulness promote unhealthier choices within individuals. At the between-person level, similar results were found for intention and social modelling. Visibility of a snack increased portion size at both a within- and between-person level, while the intention to eat a healthy snack only increased portion size at the between-person level. No associations were found between the decision to snack and all determinants. This is the first study to investigate both within- and between-person associations between time-varying determinants and snacking in older adults. Such information holds the potential for incorporation into just-in-time adaptive interventions, allowing for personalised tailoring, more effective promotion of healthier snacking behaviours and thus pursuing the challenge of healthy ageing.