Temporal Patterns in Fruit and Vegetable Intake Among Racially and Ethnically Diverse Children and Adolescents in California.

Introduction: Childhood dietary behaviors, including fruit and vegetable intake, are associated with adult health. Most children do not meet daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. Less is known about temporal patterns in fruit and vegetable consumption or if they vary by race and ethnicity. We investigated temporal patterns in fruit and vegetable intake among California school-age children and adolescents overall and by race and ethnicity.

Methods: We used 2-year cross-sectional datasets from the child and adolescent samples in the California Health Interview Surveys from 2011-2012 through 2019-2020 and modified Poisson regression models to estimate the likelihood of consuming 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables in 2013-2016 and 2017-2020 compared with 2011-2012. Models controlled for age, race and ethnicity, gender, citizenship status, family income, and adult education and tested for differences by race and ethnicity. The samples included 16,125 children aged 5 to 11 years and 9,672 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years.

Results: Overall, 29.3% of children and 25.9% of adolescents reported intake of 5 or more fruits and vegetables per day. Among children, adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) of fruit and vegetable intake were higher in 2013-2016 (PR,1.25; 95% CI, 1.11-1.42) and 2017-2020 (PR,1.13; 95% CI, 0.99-1.30) compared with 2011-2012. Among adolescents, the adjusted prevalence did not differ significantly over time. We found no evidence of differential associations by race and ethnicity for children and adolescents.

Conclusion: We found favorable temporal changes in fruit and vegetable consumption among children, but not among adolescents. Monitoring temporal patterns in fruit and vegetable intake remains critical for planning population-level interventions to increase consumption.