Overall child diet quality in the U.S. is low compared to national recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A recent study suggests more availability of fruits and vegetables and less availability of sugar-sweetened beverages in children's homes is associated with better dietary intakes. Researchers examined how multiple home environment factors, such as family meals, food availability, and socioeconomic status, influence children's intake of fruits and vegetables and sugar-sweetened beverages. Using national data from 5,138 school-aged children from 2013-2015, they identified key home, family, and community-level predictors of children’s fruit and vegetable and sugar-sweetened beverage intake while accounting for age and sex.
Study results showed higher fruit and vegetable intake was strongly linked to greater home availability of fruits and vegetables, more frequent family meals, fewer sugar-sweetened beverages available at home, and longer breastfeeding duration. The lowest intake of fruits and vegetables was associated with limited fruit availability, less supportive family eating environments, and perceived school meals as unhealthy. In contrast, higher sugar-sweetened beverage intake was primarily related to more frequent in-home availability, lower socioeconomic status,and related behavioral factors such as eating out patterns and breastfeeding duration. The lowest sugar-sweetened beverage intake occurred among children with minimal availability at home and higher community socioeconomic status.
Ultimately, the study showed that home food availability, especially access to fruits and vegetables and the presence of sugar-sweetened beverages, is the strongest and most consistent predictor of children’s intake of such foods. Further, it identified additional influences including family meals, eating out patterns, breastfeeding duration, and socioeconomic factors, suggesting that family-based interventions could help improve school-aged children’s diets.
The study was done in collaboration with Lorrene Ritchie and Gail Woodward-Lopez with the Nutrition Policy Institute, Alexander McLain, Marsha Dowda, Russell Pate, and Edward Frongillo with the University of South Carolina, and Deborah Parra-Medina with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. It was published in the journal BMC Nutrition and funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, in collaboration with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institutes of Health Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research; DHHS, under Contract No. HHSN268201000041C. This study does not reflect the views of NIH.