Abstract
BackgroundDisordered eating (DE), defined as unhealthy eating attitudes and behaviors, is considered a major public health problem among adolescents. Nevertheless, rates of DE among Arab and Jewish adolescents in Israel are still unknown. Furthermore, while previous studies have highlighted the role of frequent family meals as a protective factor against DE, studies examining home family dinners relative to other common dinner options (e.g., eating at home alone, eating out of the home, not eating dinner at all) are largely unavailable. We sought to use representative data of middle and high-school children in Israel in order to identify rates of DE among Arabs and Jews, while examining the relations of home family dinners (vs. other dinner options) with DE.MethodsA nationally representative school-based survey of 4926 middle and high-school children (11–19 years old) was conducted during 2015–2016. Participants indicated where and with whom they had eaten dinner the day before. The 5-item SCOFF questionnaire was used (> 2 affirmative items were considered a likely case of DE). Height and weight were measured by personnel.ResultsDE was more prevalent among girls (29.7%) relative to boys (12.2%), Arabs (25.1%) relative to Jews (19.5%), and older (25.3%) relative to younger (17.6%) adolescents. Arabs were more likely to eat dinner at home with parents/family (chi2 = 10.75, p = .001), or not to eat dinner at all (chi2 = 63.27, p < .001), while Jews were more likely to eat dinner alone (chi2 = 5.37, p = .021) or to eat dinner out of the home (chi2 = 67.65, p < .001). Logistic regressions (stratified by ethnicity and adjusted for gender, age, weight) revealed that family dinners acted as a protective factor against DE, relative to eating out of the home or relative to not eating dinner at all among both ethnic groups, and relative to eating dinner alone among Arabs.ConclusionThere are differences between Arab and Jewish adolescents in terms of rates of yesterday’s family dinners and DE. Given that eating dinner with the family was linked with lower rates of DE, possible interventions to reduce DE may include educating parents of both Arab and Jewish adolescents regarding the importance of family meals.
Highlights
Over the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in disordered eating (DE), defined as unhealthy eating attitudes and behaviors that include, for example, preoccupation with body weight and shape, food restriction, fasting, binge eating, and vomiting [1,2,3]
Our findings suggest slightly higher rates of Disordered eating (DE) among Arab adolescents compared to Jewish adolescents in Israel, with Arab boys reporting higher rates than Jewish boys, and Arab girls reporting similar rates to Jewish girls
In the current study, we analyzed nationally representative data of middle and high-school children in Israel in order to examine the prevalence of family dinners and DE among Arab and Jewish adolescents, and in order to understand the relations between eating dinner with the family and DE
Summary
There has been an increasing interest in disordered eating (DE), defined as unhealthy eating attitudes and behaviors that include, for example, preoccupation with body weight and shape, food restriction, fasting, binge eating, and vomiting [1,2,3]. Studies about DE in the USA have suggested a high prevalence of DE among youth of ethnic minorities [1] Both Hispanic and American Indian female youth in the USA have reported a higher prevalence of DE in comparison to that reported by white female youth. Hispanic, American Indian, black, and Asian male youth in the USA have reported a higher prevalence of DE in comparison to that reported by white male youth [10, 11] Despite these findings about the alarming rates of DE among minority youth in the USA, there is only a limited amount of empirical data describing DE among minority youth around the world. In the current study, we sought to examine the prevalence of DE in a large representative sample of Jewish and Arab middle and high-school children in Israel. We sought to use representative data of middle and high-school children in Israel in order to identify rates of DE among Arabs and Jews, while examining the relations of home family dinners (vs. other dinner options) with DE
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