Socioeconomic status of parents affects children’s eating habits: study
Whether a child tends to eat healthy food, or processed or sweet foods, depends on the education and household income of the parents, said a new study published in the British Journal of Nutrition on Monday.
Based on information from children from eight European countries which took part in the EU project IDEFICS, scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology (BIPS) explored changes in children’s diets over time and how these changes are influenced by the socioeconomic status of the parents.
In order to evaluate children’s dietary habits, the researchers examined the diet and lifestyle habits of 9,301 children between the ages of 2 and 9 (baseline survey) and 4 and 11-years-old (follow-up survey). This information was correlated with the socioeconomic status of the parents.
In the study, the researchers distinguished three dietary categories: processed food, such as snacks and ready-made meals, sweet food like sweets and sweetened beverages, and healthy food such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
Result showed that children with higher-educated parents from the highest household incomes were more likely to be allocated to the healthy cluster at baseline and follow-up and less likely to be allocated to the sweet cluster.
However, children at the lowest end of the socioeconomic spectrum were more likely to be allocated to the processed cluster at baseline and follow-up.
“This result confirms that social inequalities have an effect on the eating habits of children. So far, many prevention approaches to a healthy diet were ineffective because we can not change the social life environment of children and young people with the activities,” said Dr. Antje Hebert, head of the lifestyle-related diseases research group at BIPS. – Xinhua
