Family Dinner and Adolescent Overweight

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine both cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between frequency of family dinner and overweight status in a large sample of 9-to 14-year-old children. Research Methods and Procedures:We studied a cohort of 7784 girls and 6647 boys, 9 to 14 years of age at baseline in 1996, participating in the Growing Up Today Study. From annual mailed surveys, we calculated BMI from self-reported height and weight and assessed frequency of family dinner over the previous year. We defined "overweight" as age-and sex-specific BMI Ͼ85th percentile. We performed multiple logistic regression analyses; the longitudinal analyses assessed the association of previous year family dinner consumption with 1-year incidence of becoming overweight, using prospective data from 1996 through 1999. Results: At baseline in 1996, 16% of participants had family dinner "never or some days," 40% on "most days," and 44% "every day." Across these categories, overweight prevalence for girls was 19.4%, 16.6%, and 16.7% and for boys was 24.6%, 23.3%, and 22.7%, respectively. In cross-sectional analyses, adjusting for potential confounders, the odds of being overweight was 0.85 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.76, 0.96] among children who ate family dinner on "most days" or "every day" compared with those who ate family dinner "never or some days." In longitudinal multivariate models, the odds ratios between previous year frequency of eating family dinner and 1-year incidence of becoming overweight were 0.95 (95% CI: 0.78, 1.16) and 1.04 (95% CI: 0.85, 1.27) for children who ate family dinner on "most days" and "every day," respectively, compared with those who ate family dinner "never or some days." Discussion: The frequency of eating family dinner was inversely associated with overweight prevalence at baseline but not with likelihood of becoming overweight in longitudinal analyses.

Family meals and body weight in US adults

“…For example, some studies use questions that assess only dinner/supper family meals (1)(2)(3) , while some consider all meals that could be family meals (4)(5)(6)(7) . Other investigations examine samples of very different ages.…”

“…In contrast, other cross-sectional studies have reported no association between family meal frequency and measures of body weight (8,(23)(24)(25)(26)(27) or a direct association in some subgroups (22) . A smaller number of longitudinal studies have examined frequency of family meals and change in body weight in children and adolescents over periods that ranged from 1 to 5 years, and have reported inverse associations (1,24,28) or no significant associations (3,7) .…”

Recommendations for Prevention of Childhood Obesity

“…The Growing Up Today cohort of 7784 girls and 6647 boys 9 to 14 years of age found that the frequency of family dinners was associated inversely with overweight prevalence at baseline. 94 …”

Family Meal- and Related-Practices in Families of Preschoolers: Differences by Family Income

“…While a family meal may take many forms, researchers generally define family meals as "those occasions when food is eaten simultaneously in the same location by more than 1 family member" (Martin-Biggers et al, 2014: p. 236). Interestingly, a number of experts have suggested that one contributor to child obesity has been the decline in the frequency of family meals (McIntosh, 1999;Taveras et al, 2005), but associations between family meals and weight outcomes are mixed (Fulkerson, Larson, Horning, & Neumark-Sztainer, 2014). Although research on family meals has sparked recent interest, surprisingly little work has been conducted on low-income families, but what does exist suggests that fewer meals are shared in lower-income families relative to higher socioeconomic households (Neumark-Sztainer, Hannan, Story, Croll, & Perry, 2003).…”