Family meals with young children in Australia – An opportunity for nutrition promotion

摘要

Background/Aims: Little is known about Australian family mealtime behaviours.Research into mealtimes with young children is a priority giventhe potential to improve dietary intakes using this setting. Given the socioeconomicpatterning of diet and health, it is important to describedifferences by socioeconomic position (SEP).Methods: A cross-sectional online survey measured family meal behavioursand frequency of 464 Australian parents with a child aged six monthsto six years. Maternal education (university vs. non-university)was used tomeasure SEP. Ordinal and binary logistic regression analyses were performedto assess differences by SEP.Results: Preliminary analysis indicated 70% of participants ate familydinners at least five days/week. Higher SEP was associated with morefrequent family lunches (OR 1.58, p ? 0.03). Most children consumedbreakfast, lunch and dinner sitting at a table/bench (73%, 59% and 82%,respectively), and this was associated with higher SEP for breakfast (OR1.75, p ? 0.02), dinner (OR 1.87, p ? 0.03) and snacks (OR 1.73, p ? 0.02).Snacks were most frequently consumed while moving around the house(30%) and less frequently consumed with parents than other meals (62%eating snacks together less than five days/week). Most children (73%)watched TV during some mealtimes, and 38% watched TV on average atleast one meal/day. Frequent television viewing during meals wasinversely associated with SEP (OR 0.40, p < 0.001).Conclusions: Family meals provide much opportunity to promote healthyeating. Many of the reported behaviours support healthy eating but improvementscould be made regarding eating location, particularly for thoseof lower SEP.