title: Social environment factors, diet quality, and body weight in 12-year-old children from four public schools in Puerto Rico.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the association of social-environment (SE) factors and diet quality (DQ) with weight status in a group of children in Puerto Rico (PR).
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study in a sample of 114 12-year-old children enrolled in 4 public schools in the San Juan Metropolitan area in Puerto Rico (PR) during the 2012-2013 school year. These children completed a self-administered questionnaire on socio-demographic characteristics and SE, with information on family meal patterns; parental feeding styles; parental, peer, and school support for healthy eating; physical activity (PA); and frequency of PA and sedentary times. The participants also completed at 24-hour dietary recall interview to determine DQ. This was assessed with the Healthy Eating Index (HIE)-2010, an instrument that evaluates compliance with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated and categorized as healthy weight, overweight, or obese.
  
  
  RESULTS
  36% of participants were overweight/obese. In terms of DQ, 55% had "poor" DQ, 45% had diets that "need improvement", and none had "good" DQ. Children of healthy weight (75.0%) reported more frequent family meals than did overweight/obese children (57.5%; p = 0.05). No other significant associations were found between SE factors and DQ or body weight status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most of the participants were of healthy weight but had poor quality diets. Having a healthy weight was positively associated with frequent family meals.
authors: Mónica
authors: M
authors: Serrano
authors: Roxana
authors: R
authors: Torres
authors: Cynthia M
authors: CM
authors: Pérez
authors: Cristina
authors: C
authors: Palacios
mesh_terms: D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010290:Parents; D010379:Peer Group; D011647:Puerto Rico / Q000453:epidemiology; D012574:Schools; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires