title: Sweets consumption of preschool children--extent, context, and consumption patterns.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Sweets consumption is one of the risk factors of caries, especially among children. The aim of our study was to explore the extent and context of preschoolers' sweets consumption and to identify high-risk groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  The baseline cross-sectional data used originated from a nutritional intervention study encompassing 879 parental surveys, which were obtained in 52 kindergartens in Baden-Württemberg-the third largest federal state in Germany-between September and March 2009. Our outcome variable "sweets consumption" was operationalized using food-frequency items and analyzed by testing the influence of sociodemographic, educational, cultural, and family context covariates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most preschoolers consumed sweets every day-on average 9.7 ± 6.2 times per week. Most popular were cookies, gummy bears, and chocolate. Sweets consumption did not correlate significantly with sociodemographic factors like age and sex but rather was associated with cultural and contextual factors such as immigrant background, parental education, specific nutritional knowledge levels, and access arrangements in the home.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The consumption patterns identified are a result of high availability and parental influence (factors such as parents' knowledge levels, interest in, and habits regarding their child's nutrition).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dental practitioners should place more emphasis on gathering information from young patients regarding excessive and frequent consumption of sweets and consequently on trying to educate the children and their parents on oral health risks associated with such consumption. Particular attention is to be paid to children of Turkish and Arabic decent, as they have been shown to consume above-average amounts of sweets.
authors.affiliation: Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Social and Preventive Medicine, Mannheim Medical Faculty, Heidelberg University, Ludolf-Krehl-Strasse 7-11, Mannheim, Germany. sven.schneider@medma.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Moran
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jerusalem
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mente
authors.forename: Freia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: De Bock
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D018912:Arabs; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003469:Culture; D003710:Demography; D019422:Dietary Sucrose; D004435:Eating; D005061:Europe, Eastern / Q000208:ethnology; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012737:Sex Factors; D062410:Snacks; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey / Q000208:ethnology
chemical_list: D019422:Dietary Sucrose