Dietary Patterns and Obesity Associated Factors in Primary School Children

To provide efficient recommendation for the prevention of childhood obesity and eating disorders, it is necessary to understand and explore their dietary patterns (DPs). The main aim of the current study was to explore dietary patterns among primary school aged children and determine the relationship between different dietary patterns and factors including anthropometric measurements, family size, school performance, weekly consumption of breakfast and physical activity.
Male and female primary school children aged 7-11 (n= 761) were recruited in a cross-sectional study from all districts of Tehran(2003-2004). The students and their caregivers (mainly their mothers) were interviewed to complete a 24 h recall. Dietary patterns were explored by exploratory factor analysis of the 23 food groups.
Three major DPs were identified: healthy, transitional and western. The tendency of children towards western diet increased with their age (P Effective interventions for adapting older children and larger families to healthy eating is urged..For better judgment about correlation of DPs and adiposity more studies are recommended.