Peer-reviewed article
Family matters: home characteristics related to dietary intake of fruit, vegetables and sugar-sweetened beverages in a national cross-sectional sample of school-aged children in the U.S.
Ritchie LD, McLain AC, Dowda M, Pate R, Frongillo EA et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined home environmental factors associated with fruit, vegetable, and sugar-sweetened beverage intake in 5,138 U.S. school-aged children aged 4-15 years using national data collected 2013-2015. Home availability of fruits, vegetables, and sugar-sweetened beverages were the strongest predictors of what children ate and drank. Family eating patterns, such as eating dinner together and family encouragement of healthy eating, also influenced children's dietary intake. The research identifies modifiable home environment strategies that could be tested to improve children's nutrition.
Key points
- Home availability of fruits and vegetables was the strongest predictor of children's fruit and vegetable intake
- Children with highest fruit and vegetable intake ate dinner with family more often and were breastfed longer
- Home availability of sugar-sweetened beverages was the strongest predictor of children's consumption of these drinks
- Family compliments about eating and perceptions of school lunch quality also influenced fruit and vegetable intake
- Children in higher socioeconomic status communities had lower sugar-sweetened beverage intake
Limitations
This is a cross-sectional study, so it cannot establish causation or determine whether home availability drives intake or vice versa. The study relies on parental and child self-report of dietary intake and home characteristics, which may be subject to recall or social desirability bias.
Abstract
Background Home environments shape children's dietary habits, but which factors are most influential is unclear. The study purpose was to identify factors in the home environment associated with child intake of fruit and vegetables (FV) and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) using a national dataset collected in 2013-2015 in the U.S. Methods Data from 5,138 school-aged children (4-15 years old) from 130 U.S. communities were collected in 2013-2015. Parents and/or children completed a dietary screener and additional survey questions to assess household socioeconomic status (SES), grocery shopping sources, home food availability, social support for healthy eating, eating out frequency, and other home eating and related behaviors. Other child characteristics included breastfeeding history, intake of school foods, and participation in other nutrition programs. Community variables included predominant race/ethnicity and SES. Classification and regression trees (CART) identified key predictors of intake. Results The FV and SSB CARTS had 14 and 12 terminal groups, respectively. Children with the highest FV intake (0.54 SD from mean cups/day; 13% of sample) had fruit more often available at home, dark green vegetables more often available at home, ate dinner with family more often, had SSBs less often available at home, and were breastfed longer. Conversely, children in the two groups with the lowest FV intake either had fruit less often available at home, and family never complimented their eating (-0.86; 2%), or they had family that rarely or sometimes complimented their eating, and perceived school lunches as unhealthy (-0.87; 1%). For SSB intake, the lowest consumers (-0.63 SD from mean tsp/day sugar; 17%) never or rarely had SSBs available at home, and lived in higher SES communities. Children in the two groups with the highest SSB intakes had SSBs available at home more often, and lived in a SNAP-participating household and either ate out less often, used a phone/computer for social networking, and had SSBs available at home very often (1.3; 1%), or they ate out more often, and were breastfed for a shorter duration (1.1; 5%). Conclusions Home availability of FV and SSBs were the most salient predictors of intake of both FV and SSBs, while other predictors differed between FV and SSB intake. Study findings highlight several actionable home-environment strategies to test in future studies to improve school-aged children's diets.