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

Abstract

Background: Understanding early-life complementary feeding dietary patterns and their determining factors could lead to better ways of improving nutrition in early childhood. The purpose of this review was to evaluate evidence of the association between sociodemographic factors and dietary patterns (DPs) in children under 24 months. Methods: Medline (PubMed), Cochrane Central, NICE guidelines, and Trip database were searched for observational studies that evaluated sociodemographic factors and their associations with DP. Results: Seven studies were selected for the present review. High education level among mothers was inversely associated with unhealthy DPs and positively associated with healthy DPs. Higher household income was negatively associated with unhealthy DPs. Four studies showed a positive association between low household income and unhealthy DPs and three studies showed a positive association between higher household income and healthy DPs. Additionally, in younger mothers, body mass index (BMI ≥ 30.0 kg/m2) and number of children were positively associated with unhealthy DPs. Conclusions: This review provides evidence of a positive association between mothers’ higher education level, higher household income, higher maternal age, and healthy dietary patterns as well as a negative association between these factors and unhealthy dietary patterns. Further studies from low- and middle-income countries are needed for comparison with associations showed in this review.

Systematic review of randomised controlled trials to improve dietary intake for the prevention of obesity in infants aged 0–24 months

“…Four studies did not report any significant dietary intake outcomes. Loss to follow up was a particular concern, especially of participants who are more at risk of providing their infants diets that might be considered of poorer quality 49 . Differences and/or issues in study design, as well as measurement and analysis of dietary outcomes may partially account for these potentially disappointing findings.…”

Characterization of Infant Feeding Practices and Related-Family Characteristics in the French Nationwide ELFE Birth Cohort

“…Infant feeding practices were summarized with two complementary approaches: principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical ascendant classification (HAC). They represent the two main approaches used in the literature in this topic [ 6 , 10 , 20 , 21 ]. The identification of infant feeding patterns by PCA describes correlations between feeding practices.…”

“…The associations between all aspects of feeding during this period have yet to be analyzed in detail. In fact, only few studies have considered the full diet before age 1 year (and none before age 6 months) [ 10 ].…”

As a mother, I prefer to give a healthy snack, however... : Mothers’ considerations and value conflicts while providing snacks to their 2-7-year-old children

“…This could implicate that higher educated mothers may be more healthconscious compared to lower educated mothers, as reported by numerous previous studies 1 9 (e.g. Kant and Graubard, 2013;Ansem et al, 2014;Saldiva et al, 2014;Emmett & Jones, 2015;Durão et al, 2017;Gutiérrez-Camacho et al, 2019;Vilela et al, 2020;Desbouyes et al, 2020). However, from this thesis, this could not be concluded with certainty, because we did not measure health-consciousness as such.…”

“…Gevers et al (2016) found that 7-12-year-old children of mothers with a lower educational level consumed more energy-dense snacks, compared to children of higher educated mothers. Likewise, studies of Durão et al (2017), Chen et al (2019), van der Velde et al (2019), and Gutiérrez-Camacho et al (2019) confirm the relation between higher maternal education and a healthier dietary pattern of their children. Whether maternal educational attainment influences mothers' snack choices for their 2-7-year-old children and the possible value conflicts experienced is studied in this thesis.…”