Resemblance in dietary intakes between urban low-income African-American adolescents and their mothers: the healthy eating and active lifestyles from school to home for kids study.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the association and predictors of dietary intake resemblance between urban low-income African-American adolescents and their mothers.


METHODS
Detailed dietary data collected from 121 child-parent pairs in Chicago during fall 2003 were used. The association was assessed using correlation coefficients, kappa, and percentage of agreement, as well as logistic regression models.


RESULTS
Overall, the association was weak as indicated by correlations and other measures. None of the mother-son correlations for nutrients and food groups were greater than 0.20. Mother-daughter pairs had stronger correlations (0.26 for energy and 0.30 for fat). The association was stronger in normal-weight mothers than in mothers with overweight or obesity. Logistic models showed that mother being a current smoker, giving child more pocket money, and allowing child to eat or purchase snacks without parental permission or presence predicted a higher probability of resemblance in undesirable eating patterns, such as high-energy, high-fat, and high-snack intakes (P<0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Mother-child diet association was generally weak, and varied considerably across groups and intake variables in this homogenous population. Some maternal characteristics seem to affect the association.
Wang
Youfa
Y
Center for Human Nutrition, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. ywang@jhsph.edu
Li
Ji
J
Caballero
Benjamin
B
D000293:Adolescent; D017195:Adolescent Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000886:Anthropometry; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002641:Chicago; D002648:Child; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D004032:Diet; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D011203:Poverty; D017678:Sex Distribution; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data