Baseline dietary patterns of children enrolled in an urban family weight management study: associations with demographic characteristics

OBJECTIVE: To identify dietary patterns (DP) of children enrolled in the Family Weight Management Study (FWMS) and to examine relationship between the identified DP with demographics. DESIGN: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 332 children (BMI ≥85th percentile for age and sex and 7–12 years old) who were enrolled in the FWMS. The Block Kids Food Frequency Questionnaire was used to assess dietary intake. Principal component analysis was conducted to identify DPs. SETTING: Participants were recruited from Jacobi Medical Center, Bronx, NY from July 2009 – December 2011. RESULTS: The mean age of the children was 9.3 (±1.7 SD) years; about half were female and 75% self-identified as Hispanic/Latino. The majority of parents/guardians were born outside of the mainland USA and half had less than a high school education. We identified a “pizza-pasta” DP (high loadings of pizza, pasta, red meat, chicken, fries, sweets, processed meat, and sweet breads) and a “snacks-dessert” DP (high loadings of snacks, desserts, soft drinks, and bread and refined grains) but no healthy patterns with high loadings of fruit, vegetables, nuts, and dairy products. The “pizza-pasta” pattern was associated with parents/guardian being born in the mainland USA and having a higher educational level (p < 0.05) whereas the “snack-dessert” pattern was not significantly associated with any of the demographic variables. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that poor DP is common among second-generation immigrant Hispanic/Latino children who are obese/overweight. Future research needs to address how parental education and acculturation status are related to DP to inform future directions for preventing childhood obesity.