Dietary patterns of Australian children at three and five years of age and their changes over time: A latent class and latent transition analysis

Abstract

Consuming a healthy diet characterised by a variety of nutritious foods is essential for promoting and maintaining health and wellbeing, yet the diets of Australian children continue to fall well short of national healthy eating recommendations. This research endeavours to identify patterns of dietary intake in Australian children at three and five years of age and investigate associations between early childhood dietary patterns and socio-economic and demographic indicators and Body Mass Index (BMI), as well as identify changes in children's dietary patterns over time. Cross-sectional dietary patterns were derived for 1565 and 631 children aged three and five years, respectively using Latent Class Analysis (LCA), with changes over time analysed with Latent Transition Analysis (LTA). Demographic variables of interest included child sex, parental age, family status, and use of childcare services and socio-economic variables included education, income and employment status. Three patterns of dietary intake were identified at three years (Highly Unhealthy, Healthier and Moderately Unhealthy) and two patterns at five years (Unhealthy and Healthier). Children with younger mothers, working mothers, fathers with a higher BMI and living in a two-carer household were more likely to have unhealthy eating patterns at three years, and children with working mothers and living in a two-carer household were more likely to have unhealthy patterns of dietary intake at five years. Approximately one eighth of the sample transitioned from the healthier to unhealthy pattern of dietary intake from three to five years. The quality of Australian children's diets appears to be declining through the early childhood years, continuing to highlight the importance of nutrition policies and interventions targeted towards the early years of life.

A biopsychosocial approach to processes and pathways in the development of overweight and obesity in childhood: Insights from developmental theory and research

“…The matter of the degree to which the same construct is being measured at each age is a potential problem with cross‐lagged designs, and it is only sometimes recognized or investigated. This is a question of measurement or factor invariance . When processes and outcomes are examined prospectively across one or more developmental periods, cross‐lagged designs tend to be replaced with different measures across periods or ages .…”

“…Person‐centered strategies have been used to identify different maternal feeding practices and subgroups of emergent eating patterns from ages 1 to 3 years . Person‐centered analyses based on different child weight‐gain trajectories (including early onset and later onset OW/OB), dietary patterns, child appetitive trait typologies or family environment and parent feeding behavior typologies, or possible differences in processes for boys and girls could add to knowledge about possible pathways in the development of OW/OB in childhood.…”

“…In an illustration of evidence about trajectories in relation to eating behaviors with an emphasis on fussy and nonfussy eaters, Hittner and Faith examined emergent eating patterns from ages 1 to 3 years. This type of research could be expanded to dimensions of appetitive traits or dietary patterns associated with the development of OW/OB. Munthali et al reported different weight gain trajectories, including an early onset trajectory plus sex/gender differences in trajectories, suggesting different pathways to OW/OB.…”

“…This is a question of measurement or factor invariance. 310,[344][345][346] When processes and outcomes are examined prospectively across one or more developmental periods, cross-lagged designs tend to be replaced with different measures across periods or ages. 72,73,263,347 The third measurement issue is that results could vary according to when and how weight, weight gain, adiposity, BMI, or obesity are measured.…”

Association between Sociodemographic Factors and Dietary Patterns in Children Under 24 Months of Age: A Systematic Review

“…Another strength is that information from those studies was collected through tools such as multiple-pass 24-h recall and FFQs or designed by professional staff [69]. Dietary pattern derivation methods (PCA and latent class analysis) used in the included studies are also validated [70]. The PCA method used for factor analysis added specific food items or food groups on the basis of how food items in the dataset correlated with each other [14].…”