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Listen to this siteWednesday 5 March 2008
Study Duration : September 2007 to March 2008
Contractor : Dr Geraldine McNeill
This project provides secondary analysis of the data obtained from the Survey of Sugar intake among children in Scotland carried out in children aged 3-17 years in 2006
The project utilised the strengths of the 3 different dietary methods used in the above survey and undertook 3 different analyses:
In May – September 2006 a national survey of the diet of children aged 3-17 years was carried out across Scotland, funded by the Food Standards Agency Scotland (research project S14029). 1,700 children were visited at home by trained field workers for measurements of height and weight, questionnaires about physical activity and dental health and completion of a 140-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). 1,512 questionnaires were returned and 1,391 were used in the analysis.
For validation of the FFQs, two sub-samples of children and their parents were asked to complete another measure of diet. 311 children were invited to complete a 4-day non-weighed diet diary and a further 429 were invited to complete a single interviewer-administered 24-hour Multiple Pass Recall (MPR). Complete data were collected for 57% of children in the diary sub-sample and 98% of children in the 24-hour MPR sample.
This project provides secondary analysis of the data obtained from the FFQ, 4-day diet diary and 24-hour MPR. This analysis was designed to take advantage of the three different methods of dietary data collection in the survey to address a number of additional questions:
Of the children who kept a diet diary, most ate breakfast and tended to follow a traditional pattern of three meals a day, snacks contributed a high proportion of sugar intake.
Results from the 24-hour MPR suggested that in general, school lunches provided a better nutrient profile than packed lunches or lunches out of school, however, the intake of foods and nutrients was more similar between the groups when viewed over the whole day than at lunchtime alone.
This secondary analysis of the national survey of sugar intake has provided useful information on the meal and snack patterns of children in Scotland both at home and school, and has explored the impact of these meals and snacks on nutrient intakes. In addition to collecting dietary data, future surveys in Scotland should also consider collecting broader contextual information on eating behaviours which may help to explain differences in children’s food and nutrient intakes.
A full report is available on (External) Foodbase
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