Impact of the Family Environment on the Frequency of Animal-Based Product Consumption in School-Aged Children in Central Poland

Abstract

Animal-sourced foods (ASFs) have a high nutritional value, which makes them important elements of young people’s diets. Several environmental factors might affect the dietary habits of children and adolescents, and their identification seems to be a principal reason to maintain their healthy eating practice. Thus, we aimed to investigate selected environmental factors (a place of residence, net income, mother’s education level, number of siblings, and mother’s BMI), which may be linked to the consumption frequency of ASFs among school-aged children. In total, 892 mothers of primary school children aged 7–14 years from central Poland took part in the anonymous and voluntary survey. The frequency of meat and meat product consumption was affected by the mother’s education level, place of residence, and net income. Generally, meat was eaten more often by the city children (G = 0.178, p p p p p boys, G = 0.123, p village, G = 0.214, p city, G = 0.97, p <0.05). It can be concluded that the mother’s level of education is a key factor linked to the selected children’s dietary habits. Thus, we believe that successful health education programs designed for young people should include the maternal capacity to interpret and adapt information into daily practice.

Keywords

• animal-based products
• frequency of food consumption
• determinants
• nutritional survey
• children