Association of Eating Behavior With Nutritional Status and Body Composition in Primary School–Aged Children

Abstract

Problematic eating behaviors during childhood may lead to positive energy balance and obesity. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the association of eating behaviors with nutritional status and body composition in Malaysian children aged 7 to 12 years. A total of 1782 primary schoolchildren were randomly recruited from 6 regions in Malaysia. The multidimensional Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) was reported by parents to determine the 8 different dimensions of eating styles among children. Body mass index (BMI), BMI-for-age Z-score, waist circumference, and body fat percentage were assessed. Linear regression analyses revealed that both food responsiveness and desire to drink subscales were positively associated with a child's body adiposity, whereas satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, and emotional undereating subscales were negatively associated with adiposity (all P < .05). A multidimensional eating style approach based on the CEBQ is needed to promote healthy eating behaviors in order to prevent excessive weight gain and obesity problems among Malaysian children.

Non-Responsive Feeding Practices, Unhealthy Eating Behaviors, and Risk of Child Overweight and Obesity in Southeast Asia: A Systematic Review

“…After exclusion, 14 original research articles were deemed eligible and included in this systematic review for content analysis and qualitative synthesis [25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38]. …”

“…Of the 14 reviewed studies, 11 were cross-sectional [25,28,29,30,32,33,34,35,36,37,38], one was a case-control study [27], and two were longitudinal studies [26,31]. Sample sizes ranged from 99 to 1782, and children included in study samples ranged from two to 12 years old.…”

“…Eight studies included in this review examined associations between a number of non-responsive parental feeding practices and/or unhealthy child eating habits and the risk of child overweight and obesity in school-age children (6–12 years old) [31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38]. The examined practices and habits are discussed below.…”

“…Four cross-sectional studies examined the relationship between unhealthy eating habits among children—including skipping breakfast, frequent fast food consumption, excess snacking, consumption of unhealthy snacks, and increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages—and risk of overweight and obesity in school-age children [33,36,37,38]. …”

“…Similarly, another cross-sectional study of 9–10-year-old Malaysian children found that children who were overweight and obese were more likely to consume fast food (>4 times/week) than normal-weight children [36]. …”