Contribution of home availability, parental child-feeding practices and health beliefs on children's sweets and salty snacks consumption in Europe: Feel4Diabetes-Study

Adoption of healthy dietary and snacking habits could support optimum physical and mental development in children as they define health in adulthood. This study assessed parameters associated with children's snacking such as food home availability, parenting practices, and parents' health beliefs. In this cross-sectional study 12 039 children, 49 center dot 4% boys 5-12 years, participating in the European Feel4Diabetes-Study were included. Children's weekly consumption of sweets and salty snacks, home availability of snacks, food parenting practices, and health beliefs were assessed via questionnaires. Logistic regression was applied to explore associations of a) home availability of snacks, b) food parenting practices (permissiveness and rewarding with snacks) and c) parent's opinions on deterministic health beliefs with children's consumption of sweets and salty snacks. Results showed that home availability (sweets: ORadj: 4 center dot 76, 95 % CI: 4 center dot 32, 5 center dot 23; salty snacks: ORadj: 6 center dot 56, 95 % CI: 5 center dot 64, 7 center dot 61), allowing to consume (sweets: ORadj: 3 center dot 29, 95 % CI: 2 center dot 95, 3 center dot 67; salty snacks: ORadj: 3 center dot 41, 95 % CI: 2 center dot 98, 3 center dot 90) and rewarding with sweets/salty snacks (sweets: ORadj: 2 center dot 69, 95 % CI: 2 center dot 23, 3 center dot 24; salty snacks: ORadj: 4 center dot 34, 95 % CI: 3 center dot 57, 5 center dot 28) 'sometimes/or less frequently' compared to 'always/or often' were associated with lower weekly consumption of sweets and snacks. Parents' disagreement compared to agreement with deterministic health beliefs and inattentive eating were associated with lower consumption of salty snacks and sweets in children. Overall, the findings of this study indicate that attempts to promote healthy snacking habits in children should aim to improve parental dietary habits, food parenting practices, health beliefs, and reducing home availability of unhealthy foods and snacks.

Automated summary

The study suggests that home availability of snacks, permissiveness and rewarding of snacks by parents are associated with lower consumption of sweets and salty snacks in children. Furthermore, disagreement between parents on deterministic health beliefs and inattentive eating are also linked to lower consumption of unhealthy snacks and sweets in children.