Adherence to the Mediterranean diet in Italian school children (The ZOOM8 Study)

Abstract

The adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) of 1740 Italian 8-9-year-olds was evaluated using the KIDMED index and a descriptive analysis of it by socio-demographic and lifestyle factors was performed. Only 5.0% of the children resulted "high" adherers of MD (62.2% "average" and 32.8% "poor"). This scarce adherence was due to a low consumption of fruit, vegetables, legumes, dairy products and a high intake of commercially baked goods for breakfast and sweets. Hindrances to fruit, vegetables and pulses consumption were reported for one-third of the sample. The adherence rates did not differ significantly with BMI and gender. Adherence improved with: having lunch at school; liking lunch at school; breakfast with family; no free access to food; availability of fruit and pulses; liking vegetables; higher maternal education; lower child screen time; population size of place of residence. The results show it is important to improve family food habits and dietary knowledge.

Association between Family Meals and the Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in Spanish Adolescents

“…It also suggests that a better quality diet among adolescents is not only associated with eating dinner with the family, as most U.S. studies of FMF have shown [20,21,24,30,31], but also with eating breakfast with the family. Like in the present study, an Italian study also observed a significant association between MD adherence and eating breakfast with the family [9]. It is not known whether this association is exclusive to Mediterranean areas or has yet to be identified in the U.S.…”

“…This discrepancy is possibly due to the wide age range of the Serra sample; 2-24 years vs. 12-17 years. The gap in time between the two measurements might also explain the discrepancy (1998-2000 [47] vs. 2011), since it is widely believed that there has been a gradual abandonment of the MD diet in Mediterranean regions [8][9][10].…”

“…High MD adherence in adolescents has also been associated with the education level of both parents, or only of the mother, in Greece [32], Turkey [33] and Italy [9]. A higher education level may be associated with multiple factors that encourage a healthy lifestyle; for example, higher income makes healthier foods more available, while a more detailed understanding of nutrition might offer additional support or motivation to maintain healthy lifestyles [32].…”

“…The MD has been postulated as a protective factor against different diseases, including hypertension and coronary heart disease [4][5][6][7]. Nevertheless, a gradual abandonment of the MD has been reported in Mediterranean children and adolescents in recent decades [8][9][10]. The MD is more than just a dietary pattern, it is a lifestyle derived from millennia of exchanges involving the people, cultures and foods of the countries around the Mediterranean Sea.…”

“…Unfortunately, there have been very few Mediterranean studies of family meal frequency (FMF) [9], so as far as we know, there are no records of FMF and it is not known whether FMF has changed in the Mediterranean countries in recent decades. In other regions, such as the United States (U.S.), a reduction in FMF has been reported in recent decades [13].…”