Tracking a dietary pattern associated with increased adiposity in childhood and adolescence

Abstract

Objective: Understanding dietary tracking may help to inform interventions to improve dietary intakes and health outcomes. This study investigated how a dietary pattern (DP) associated with increased adiposity in childhood tracked from 7 to 13 years of age, in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

Design and methods: Three-day food diaries were collected at 7, 10 and 13 years. Reduced rank regression was used to score respondents for an energy-dense, high fat, low fiber DP at each age. Tracking coefficients were estimated for the DP and its key foods using data from 7,027 children.

Results: The DP tracking coefficient was 0.48 (95% CI: 0.44-0.52) for boys and 0.38 (95% CI: 0.35-0.41) for girls. Of 10 key food groups, fruit, vegetables, high fiber bread, high fiber breakfast cereals and full fat milk intakes exhibited the strongest tracking, particularly among low consumers. Lower maternal education and greater prepregnancy maternal BMI predicted higher DP z scores and lower fruit and vegetable intakes.

Conclusions: A dietary pattern associated with increased adiposity tracks moderately from 7 to 13 years of age in this large UK cohort. Specific groups of families may require additional support to foster lifelong healthy dietary habits in their children.

Figure 1

Proportions remaining in the same extreme quartile of consumption levels at 7 and 13 y of age Plotted values are proportions of respondents who maintained their ranking in either the lowest (light) or highest (dark) quartile at 7 years and 13 years of age. Tertiles replace quartiles for full fat milk, high fibre breakfast cereal, high fibre bread and legumes. Results are for boys and girls combined.

Figure 2

Difference in average intake (z-score) per decreasing level of maternal education (relative to the highest level). Plotted values are beta coefficients and 95% confidence intervals for maternal education level included as an ordinal covariate (5 levels) in GEE models (Equation 1) to calculate tracking coefficients for dietary pattern z-scores and food intakes (energy-adjusted z-scores).

Figure 3

Difference in average intake (z-score) per increasing unit of maternal prepregnancy BMI Plotted values are beta coefficients and 95% confidence intervals for maternal prepregnancy BMI included as a continuous covariate in GEE models (Equation 1) to calculate tracking coefficients for dietary pattern z-scores and food intakes (energy-adjusted z-scores).