Do mindful eating intervention programs improve mindful eating and nutritional status in children?

Background: The study aimed to evaluate the changes in mindful eating scores, anthropometric measurements, and dietary adequacy in children after the Mindful Eating Intervention Program for Children and Parents (MEIP-CP).

Methods: This study was conducted as a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test pattern. The research sample comprised 64 children (48.4% boys, 51.6% girls) aged 8-11 years and their parents. The MEIP-CP includes six sessions (preventing mindless eating, exploring the senses, recognizing hunger and fullness signals, expressing emotions, sowing the seeds of awareness, and cultural meal invitation) of 45-60 min/per week. Data was obtained using questionnaire with face-to-face interviews at the pre-test (baseline), post-test (week 6 and week 12). The survey form included the socio-demographics information, the Mindful Eating Questionnaire for Children (MEQ-C), the Emotional Eating Scale for Children and Adolescents (EES-C), anthropometric measurements, and a 24-hour dietary recall. The nutrient adequacy ratio (NAR) and mean adequacy ratio (MAR) were used to evaluate children's diets.

Results: The Mindless eating scores of children decreased, and Awareness scores increased at post-test evaluation (p < 0.05). No significant difference was found in the anthropometric measurements of both boys and girls during the study (p > 0.05). Following the MEIP-CP, there was a trend toward decreased EES-C subscales scores. The rate of those who were in the "good" group (> 80%) in terms of MAR rating baseline (46.9%) increased to 70.3% in the sixth week. While gender, the EES-C score, and Body Mass Index were associated with the Mindless eating score, age, the MAR rating, and the EES-C scores were associated with the Awareness score in regression models (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: The MEIP-CP may contribute to increasing mindful eating and dietary adequacy in addition to reducing emotional state-related behaviours in children.