Home environment and child diet

The purpose of this research was to assess the association between the home environment and child diet. This dissertation followed three aims. Aim 1 examined the association between home food availability, measured by an open, researcher conducted inventory, and dietary intake in 3-8 year old children (N = 82). The only significant association remaining after adjustment for income, number of children and adults in the home, occupation, and race, was between vegetable intake and vegetable availability (OR=1.51, 95% CI=1.17-1.96). The purpose of Aim 2 was to explore the social environment and its relationship with dietary behaviors. From a parent-report questionnaire, three factors describing the home environment were identified, where eat, control, and self-serve, using exploratory factor analysis. The associations between these factors, and four individual, non-loading items, and child diet were examined. After adjustment for child age, occupation, income, and race, positive correlations were observed between intake of sweet snacks and the self-serve subscale (r = 0.29, p = 0.01), vegetable intake and parent modeling (r = 0.26, p = 0.04), and dinners away from home and fruit/fruit juice (r = 0.24, p = 0.05) intake. A negative correlation was observed between soda intake and modeling (r = -0.26, p = 0.03). Aim 3 consisted of a randomized controlled trial piloting a four-month intervention involving four tailored newsletters and two phone calls targeting the home environment to increase vegetable intake in children. Vegetable intake in intervention group children (n=22) increased more than those in the control group (n=21) (+0.09 ± 0.3 servings/day intervention vs. -0.03 ± 0.54 control), but this difference was not significant. Parents in the intervention group reported increased vegetable availability in their homes (+1.55 ± 2.46 intervention vs. -0.33 ± 2.69 control, p=0.02). Additionally, intervention group parents reported positive social environment changes, for example, the number of days per week they suggested a fruit or vegetable for snack (p=0.04). The results of this dissertation suggest that a parent-focused intervention may lead to changes to the home environment. More research is needed to see if such interventions over longer intervention periods could be helpful for making dietary changes