Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Home
  • Home
Article
  • Cited by 32

  • Access

Parental education and frequency of food consumption in European children: the IDEFICS study

  • Juan Miguel Fernández-Alvira (a1), Theodora Mouratidou (a1), Karin Bammann (a2), Antje Hebestreit (a2), Gianvincenzo Barba (a3), Sabina Sieri (a4), Lucia Reisch (a5), Gabriele Eiben (a6), Charalampos Hadjigeorgiou (a7), Eva Kovacs (a8), Inge Huybrechts (a9) and Luis A Moreno (a1)...

Abstract

Objective

To assess the relationship between parental education level and the consumption frequency of obesity-related foods in European children.

Design

The analysis was based on data from the cross-sectional baseline survey of a prospective cohort study. The effects of parental education on food consumption were explored using analysis of covariance and logistic regression.

Setting

Primary schools and pre-schools of selected regions in Italy, Estonia, Cyprus, Belgium, Sweden, Hungary, Germany and Spain.

Subjects

Participants (n 14 426) of the IDEFICS baseline cohort study aged 2 to 9 years.

Results

Parental education level affected the intake of obesity-related foods in children. Children in the low and medium parental education level groups had lower odds of more frequently eating low-sugar and low-fat foods (vegetables, fruits, pasta/noodles/rice and wholemeal bread) and higher odds of more frequently eating high-sugar and high-fat foods (fried potatoes, fruits with sugar and nuts, snacks/desserts and sugared beverages; P < 0·001). The largest odds ratio differences were found in the low category (reference category: high) for vegetables (OR = 0·56; 95 % CI 0·47, 0·65), fruits (OR = 0·56; 95 % CI 0·48, 0·65), fruits with sugar and nuts (OR = 2·23; 95 % CI 1·92, 2·59) and sugared beverages (OR = 2·01; 95 % CI 1·77, 2·37).

Conclusions

Low parental education level was associated with intakes of sugar-rich and fatty foods among children, while high parental education level was associated with intakes of low-sugar and low-fat foods. These findings should be taken into account in public health interventions, with more targeted policies aiming at an improvement of children's diet.

    •

      • Send article to Kindle

      To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about sending to your Kindle.

      Note you can select to send to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be sent to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

      Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

      Parental education and frequency of food consumption in European children: the IDEFICS study
      Available formats
      ×

      Send article to Dropbox

      To send this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Dropbox.

      Parental education and frequency of food consumption in European children: the IDEFICS study
      Available formats
      ×

      Send article to Google Drive

      To send this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Google Drive.

      Parental education and frequency of food consumption in European children: the IDEFICS study
      Available formats
      ×

Copyright

COPYRIGHT: © The Authors 2012

Corresponding author

*Corresponding author. Email juanfdez@unizar.es

References

Hide All
1.Mackenbach, JP, Stirbu, I, Roskam, AJet al. (2008) Socioeconomic inequalities in health in 22 European countries. N Engl J Med 358, 2468–2481.
2.Mackenbach, JP & Kunst, AE (1997) Measuring the magnitude of socio-economic inequalities in health: an overview of available measures illustrated with two examples from Europe. Soc Sci Med 44, 757–771.
3.Turrell, G, Hewitt, B, Patterson, Cet al. (2003) Measuring socio-economic position in dietary research: is choice of socio-economic indicator important? Public Health Nutr 6, 191–200.
4.Galobardes, B, Lynch, J & Smith, GD (2007) Measuring socioeconomic position in health research. Br Med Bull 81–82, 21–37.
5.Darmon, N & Drewnowski, A (2008) Does social class predict diet quality? Am J Clin Nutr 87, 1107–1117.
6.Sausenthaler, S, Kompauer, I, Mielck, Aet al. (2007) Impact of parental education and income inequality on children's food intake. Public Health Nutr 10, 24–33.
7.James, WP, Nelson, M, Ralph, Aet al. (1997) Socioeconomic determinants of health. The contribution of nutrition to inequalities in health. BMJ 314, 1545–1549.
8.Huh, J, Riggs, NR, Spruijt-Metz, Det al. (2011) Identifying patterns of eating and physical activity in children: a latent class analysis of obesity risk. Obesity (Silver Spring) 19, 652–658.
9.Cutler, GJ, Flood, A, Hannan, Pet al. (2011) Multiple sociodemographic and socioenvironmental characteristics are correlated with major patterns of dietary intake in adolescents. J Am Diet Assoc 111, 230–240.
10.Eloranta, AM, Lindi, V, Schwab, Uet al. (2011) Dietary factors and their associations with socioeconomic background in Finnish girls and boys 6–8 years of age: the PANIC Study. Eur J Cin Nutr 65, 1211–1218.
11.Vereecken, CA, Keukelier, E & Maes, L (2004) Influence of mother's educational level on food parenting practices and food habits of young children. Appetite 43, 93–103.
12.Hebestreit, A, Keimer, K, Hassel, Het al. (2010) What do children understand? Communicating health behavior in a European multicenter study. J Public Health 18, 391–401.
13.Lamerz, A, Kuepper-Nybelen, J, Wehle, Cet al. (2005) Social class, parental education, and obesity prevalence in a study of six-year-old children in Germany. Int J Obes (Lond) 29, 373–380.
14.Cribb, VL, Jones, LR, Rogers, ISet al. (2011) Is maternal education level associated with diet in 10-year-old children? Public Health Nutr 14, 2037–2048.
15.Cooke, LJ, Wardle, J, Gibson, ELet al. (2004) Demographic, familial and trait predictors of fruit and vegetable consumption by pre-school children. Public Health Nutr 7, 295–302.
16.Ahrens, W, Bammann, K, Siani, Aet al. (2011) The IDEFICS cohort: design, characteristics and participation in the baseline survey. Int J Obes (Lond) 35, Suppl. 1, S3–S15.
17.Ahrens, W, Bammann, K, de Henauw, Set al. (2006) Understanding and preventing childhood obesity and related disorders – IDEFICS: a European multilevel epidemiological approach. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis 16, 302–308.
18.Bammann, K, Peplies, J, Pigeot, Iet al. (2007) IDEFICS: a multicenter European project on diet- and lifestyle-related disorders in children. Med Klin 102, 230–235.
19.United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cutural Organization (2010) ISCED: International Standard Classification for Education. http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Pages/international-standard-classification-of-education.aspx (accessed May 2011).
20.Huybrechts, I, Bornhorst, C, Pala, Vet al. (2011) Evaluation of the Children's Eating Habits Questionnaire used in the IDEFICS study by relating urinary calcium and potassium to milk consumption frequencies among European children. Int J Obes (Lond) 35, Suppl. 1, S69–S78.
21.Lanfer, A, Hebestreit, A, Ahrens, Wet al. (2011) Reproducibility of food consumption frequencies derived from the Children's Eating Habits Questionnaire used in the IDEFICS study. Int J Obes (Lond) 35, Suppl. 1, S61–S68.
22.Stomfai, S, Ahrens, W, Bammann, Ket al. (2011) Intra- and inter-observer reliability in anthropometric measurements in children. Int J Obes (Lond) 35, Suppl. 1, S45–S51.
23.Cole, TJ, Bellizzi, MC, Flegal, KMet al. (2000) Establishing a standard definition for child overweight and obesity worldwide: international survey. BMJ 320, 1240–1243.
24.Cole, TJ, Flegal, KM, Nicholls, Det al. (2007) Body mass index cut offs to define thinness in children and adolescents: international survey. BMJ 335, 194.
25.Margetts, BM, Martinez, JA, Saba, Aet al. (1997) Definitions of ‘healthy’ eating: a pan-EU survey of consumer attitudes to food, nutrition and health. Eur J Clin Nutr 51, Suppl. 2, S23–S29.
26.Abudayya, AH, Stigum, H, Shi, Zet al. (2009) Sociodemographic correlates of food habits among school adolescents (12–15 year) in North Gaza Strip. BMC Public Health 9, 185.
27.Sandvik, C, Gjestad, R, Samdal, Oet al. (2010) Does socio-economic status moderate the associations between psychosocial predictors and fruit intake in schoolchildren? The Pro Children study. Health Educ Res 25, 121–134.
28.Suliga, E (2010) Parental education and living environmental influence on physical development, nutritional habits as well as level of physical activity in Polish children and adolescents. Anthropol Anz 68, 53–66.
29.Klocke, A (1997) The impact of poverty on nutrition behaviour in young Europeans. In Poverty and Food in Welfare Societies, pp. 224–237 [B Kohler, E Feichtinger, E Barlosius et al., editors]. Berlin: WZB, Edition Sigma.
30.Rasmussen, M, Krolner, R, Klepp, KIet al. (2006) Determinants of fruit and vegetable consumption among children and adolescents: a review of the literature. Part I: Quantitative studies. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 3, 22.
31.Blake, CE, Wethington, E, Farrell, TJet al. (2011) Behavioral contexts, food-choice coping strategies, and dietary quality of a multiethnic sample of employed parents. J Am Diet Assoc 111, 401–407.
32.Laitinen, S, Rasanen, L, Viikari, Jet al. (1995) Diet of Finnish children in relation to the family's socio-economic status. Scand J Soc Med 23, 88–94.
33.Irala-Estevez, JD, Groth, M, Johansson, Let al. (2000) A systematic review of socio-economic differences in food habits in Europe: consumption of fruit and vegetables. Eur J Clin Nutr 54, 706–714.
34.Craig, LC, McNeill, G, Macdiarmid, JIet al. (2010) Dietary patterns of school-age children in Scotland: association with socio-economic indicators, physical activity and obesity. Br J Nutr 103, 319–334.
35.Shavers, VL (2007) Measurement of socioeconomic status in health disparities research. J Natl Med Assoc 99, 1013–1023.
36.Braveman, PA, Cubbin, C, Egerter, Set al. (2005) Socioeconomic status in health research: one size does not fit all. JAMA 294, 2879–2888.
37.Wagstaff, A & Watanabe, N (2003) What difference does the choice of SES make in health inequality measurement? Health Econ 12, 885–890.
38.Nilsen, SM, Krokstad, S, Holmen, TLet al. (2010) Adolescents’ health-related dietary patterns by parental socio-economic position, the Nord-Trondelag Health Study (HUNT). Eur J Public Health 20, 299–305.
39.Ebenegger, V, Marques-Vidal, PM, Nydegger, Aet al. (2011) Independent contribution of parental migrant status and educational level to adiposity and eating habits in preschool children. Eur J Clin Nutr 65, 210–218.
40.Ruijsbroek, A, Wijga, AH, Kerkhof, Met al. (2011) The development of socio-economic health differences in childhood: results of the Dutch longitudinal PIAMA birth cohort. BMC Public Health 11, 225.
41.Moschonis, G, Tanagra, S, Vandorou, Aet al. (2010) Social, economic and demographic correlates of overweight and obesity in primary-school children: preliminary data from the Healthy Growth Study. Public Health Nutr 13, 1693–1700.
42.Groves, R (2006) Nonresponse rates and nonresponse bias in household surveys. Public Opin Q 70, 646–675.
43.Hulshof, KF, Brussaard, JH, Kruizinga, AGet al. (2003) Socio-economic status, dietary intake and 10 y trends: the Dutch National Food Consumption Survey. Eur J Clin Nutr 57, 128–137.

Keywords

  • Cited by 32

  • Access

Parental education and frequency of food consumption in European children: the IDEFICS study

  • Juan Miguel Fernández-Alvira (a1), Theodora Mouratidou (a1), Karin Bammann (a2), Antje Hebestreit (a2), Gianvincenzo Barba (a3), Sabina Sieri (a4), Lucia Reisch (a5), Gabriele Eiben (a6), Charalampos Hadjigeorgiou (a7), Eva Kovacs (a8), Inge Huybrechts (a9) and Luis A Moreno (a1)...

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Abstract views

Total abstract views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between <date>. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed