Baseline dietary patterns of children enrolled in an urban family weight management study: associations with demographic characteristics.

Objective: To identify dietary patterns (DP) of children enrolled in the Family Weight Management Study (FWMS) and to examine relationship between the identified DP with demographics.

Design: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 332 children (BMI ≥85th percentile for age and sex and 7-12 years old) who were enrolled in the FWMS. The Block Kids Food Frequency Questionnaire was used to assess dietary intake. Principal component analysis was conducted to identify DPs.

Setting: Participants were recruited from Jacobi Medical Center, Bronx, NY from July 2009 - December 2011.

Results: The mean age of the children was 9.3 (±1.7 SD) years; about half were female and 75% self-identified as Hispanic/Latino. The majority of parents/guardians were born outside of the mainland USA and half had less than a high school education. We identified a "pizza-pasta" DP (high loadings of pizza, pasta, red meat, chicken, fries, sweets, processed meat, and sweet breads) and a "snacks-dessert" DP (high loadings of snacks, desserts, soft drinks, and bread and refined grains) but no healthy patterns with high loadings of fruit, vegetables, nuts, and dairy products. The "pizza-pasta" pattern was associated with parents/guardian being born in the mainland USA and having a higher educational level (p < 0.05) whereas the "snack-dessert" pattern was not significantly associated with any of the demographic variables.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that poor DP is common among second-generation immigrant Hispanic/Latino children who are obese/overweight. Future research needs to address how parental education and acculturation status are related to DP to inform future directions for preventing childhood obesity.