Meal patterns and food use in 10- to 11-year-old Finnish children.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the meal patterns and food use on weekdays among 10- to 11-year-old Finnish children and to analyse these in relation to family's socio-economic status and the child's behaviour.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study on a cohort of 404 children aged 10-11 years in the rural town of Ylivieska, mid-western Finland.


METHODS
A food-frequency questionnaire including questions on meal patterns and food use and the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) completed by the parents and the child together.


RESULTS
Practically all children (99%) ate breakfast regularly, 94% had a daily school lunch and 80% had dinner at home daily. Vegetables were consumed daily at home by 26% and fruits or berries by 21%, while 46% of the children had salad daily at school. Twenty-four per cent ate sweets daily or nearly so on weekdays. The children from families of high socio-economic status ate vegetables more often, and fewer of them used butter or high-fat milk. The children with no regular family dinner ate sweets and fast foods more often, and had higher total CBCL problem scores than those with a regular family dinner.


CONCLUSIONS
Skipping meals appears not to be common among Finnish children aged 10-11 years, but a considerable proportion consume sweets frequently and vegetables infrequently. High family socio-economic status and a tendency to eat together are associated with healthy food choices among schoolchildren.
Haapalahti
Mila
M
Department of Pediatrics, University of Oulu, PO Box 5000, FIN-90014, Finland. mila.haapalahti@uku.fi
Mykkänen
Hannu
H
Tikkanen
Sami
S
Kokkonen
Jorma
J
D002182:Candy; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014675:Vegetables