The enriched home environment and dietary intake are related to percent overBMI in children

Longitudinal research suggests that living in a cognitively enriched home environment, in which access to activities including hobbies and books are plentiful, can prevent excess weight gain and obesity in children. In order for the enriched home environment to influence weight it should influence energy and macronutrient intake and/or energy expenditure. To test this hypothesis, we used a cross sectional design to study aspects of the child’s enriched home environment along with energy and macronutrient intake. A sample of 158 6–9-year-old children measured between February 2017 – April 2019 in Buffalo, NY were selected from a larger study based on criteria for accurate reporting of energy intake using the Block Kid’s Food Frequency Questionnaire. Results showed that the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) subscales enriched environment, parental warmth and an integrated family structure were negatively related to child percent overBMI. Hierarchical regression showed that each of these factors improved variance in child percent overBMI accounted for beyond dietary intake or macronutrients, specifically accounting for a total of 18.2% variance in models controlling for total energy intake. These results provide the first demonstration that characteristics of a child’s home environment are associated with lower energy intake and independently associated with percent overBMI beyond knowledge of diet. Enriching a child’s home environment by providing alternative activities to eating, improving parental warmth and providing opportunities for parents to interact positively with their children may be novel ways to reduce childhood obesity that should be experimentally tested in future research.