Adolescent dietary patterns are associated with lifestyle and family psycho-social factors

Dietary intake during adolescence contributes to lifelong eating habitsand the development of early risk factors for disease in adulthood. Few studieshave examined the dietary patterns of adolescents and the social and environmentalfactors that may affect them during this life stage. The present study describes dietarypatterns in a cohort of adolescents and examines their associations with socioeconomicfactors, as well as parental and adolescent risk factor behaviours.Design: A semi-quantitative FFQ was used to assess study adolescents’ usual dietaryintake over the previous year. Information was collected on family functioning andvarious socio-economic and risk factor variables via questionnaire. Adolescentsvisited the study clinic for anthropometric measurements.Setting: The Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort Study (Raine Study), Perth,Western Australia.Subjects: Adolescents (n 1631) aged 14 years from a pregnancy cohort study.Results: Factor analysis identified two distinct dietary patterns that differed predominantlyin fat and sugar intakes. The ‘Western’ pattern consisted of highintakes of take-away foods, soft drinks, confectionery, French fries, refined grains,full-fat dairy products and processed meats. The ‘healthy’ pattern included highintakes of whole grains, fruit, vegetables, legumes and fish. ANOVA showed thatthe ‘Western’ dietary pattern was positively associated with greater televisionviewing and having a parent who smoked, and was inversely associated withfamily income. The ‘healthy’ pattern was positively associated with femalegender, greater maternal education, better family functioning and being in a twoparentfamily, and was inversely associated with television viewing.Conclusions: The study suggests that both lifestyle factors and family psychosocialenvironment are related to dietary patterns in Australian adolescents.