Are dietary patterns stable throughout early and mid-childhood? A birth cohort study.
This study assesses the stability of dietary patterns obtained using principal components analysis (PCA) through early to mid-childhood. Dietary data were collected from children in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ALSPAC). Frequency of consumption of a range of food items was recorded by mothers using self-completion postal questionnaires when their children were 3, 4, 7 and 9 years of age. Dietary patterns were identified using PCA and component scores were calculated at each time-point. In total 6177 children had data available at all four time-points. Three patterns were consistently seen across time: the 'processed', 'traditional' and 'health conscious' patterns. At 3 years an additional 'snack' pattern was obtained and at 9 years the 'health conscious' pattern was slightly modified (meat products were negatively associated). High correlations were evident for all three scores between each pair of time-points. The widest limits of agreement were seen for all pairings between the 3 and 9 years data, whilst the narrowest were seen between the 4 and 7 years data. A reasonable level of agreement was seen with the categorised component scores from each time-point of data (kappa ranging from 0.28 to 0.47). Virtually identical dietary patterns were obtained at the ages of 4 and 7; however, periods of change were apparent between the ages of 3 and 4 and the ages of 7 and 9. It is important to make regular dietary assessments during childhood in order to assess accurately the effects of diet on future health outcomes.
Northstone
Kate
K
Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK. Kate.Northstone@bristol.ac.uk
Emmett
Pauline M
PM
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004032:Diet; D015930:Diet Records; D004522:Educational Status; D002149:Energy Intake; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D009752:Nutritional Status; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012923:Social Class