engleski

Fruit and vegetable consumption in school-aged children: influenced by frequency, variety or preferences?

Worldwide, a large proportion of children consume suboptimal amounts of fruit and vegetables. In response, numerous intervention studies have been conducted to promote fruit and vegetable consumption. To increase the effectiveness of the intervention, it is necessary to identify the factors that most influence children's fruit and vegetable consumption in their socio-cultural environment. Indeed, according to Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of human development, many factors (preferences, education, family, peers, school environment, availability of food, etc.) can influence children's fruit and vegetable consumption, with availability and preferences appearing to be the most prominent. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate whether the consumption of fruit and vegetables is related to the following factors: (1) children's preferences, (2) frequency of consumption, and (3) variety of fruit and vegetables among primary school children in Croatia. The study involved 195 (52.3% boys) school-aged children (8.9 ± 0.5 years) from 14 primary schools in the city of Zagreb. Dietary records for three non-consecutive days were used to estimate fruit and vegetable intake, frequency of fruit and vegetable servings, fruit and vegetable variety score, and food variety score. The food variety score was calculated as the average number of different food items eaten by each child during the recording of the 3-day dietary records. The fruit and vegetable variety score was calculated as the total variety score for fruit and vegetables only. Children's preference for fruit (26 species) and vegetables (28 species) was determined using a questionnaire that included a 5-point hedonic scale, where 1 meant ‘I dislike it a lot’ and 5 meant ‘I like it a lot’. Children consumed an average of 304.0 g (198.9 - 412.4 g) of fruit and vegetables daily. Only 28.2% of the children met the World Health Organization recommendations for daily consumption of 400 g of fruit and vegetables. The calculated value for fruit and vegetable variety score shows that children consumed average 3.3 (2.7 - 4.0) different fruit and vegetables daily, which is on average 24% (19 - 28%) of the food variety score. The amount of fruit and vegetables consumed was positively correlated with the fruit and vegetable variety score (r = 0.567 ; p < 0.001) and the proportion of the fruit and vegetable variety score to the food variety score (r = 0.621 ; p < 0.001). In terms of frequency of consumption, children consumed fruit and vegetables on average 4.7 (3.7 - 6.3) times per day. The daily frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption was positively correlated with the amount of fruit and vegetables consumed (r = 0.518 ; p < 0.001). Overall, the children rated 54 different fruit and vegetables with an average score of 3.3 (2.6 - 3.8). According to Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, the amount of fruit and vegetables consumed was not related to the children's fruit and vegetable preferences (r = 0.130 ; p = 0.069). In conclusion, most school-aged children do not consume enough fruit and vegetables on a daily basis and a strategy needs to be developed to increase children's intake of fruit and vegetables in children. The results of this study highlight the importance of frequency and variety of fruit and vegetable consumption in explaining fruit and vegetable consumption among primary school children. As frequency and variety of consumption appears to be a more important factor than preferences for higher fruit and vegetable consumption, an effective strategy to promote fruit and vegetable consumption among primary school children in Croatia could be to include more fruits and vegetables in school meals and meals prepared at home.

childhood ; frequency ; fruit intake ; preference ; variety ; vegetable intake

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