Identifying Dietary Patterns Associated with Dairy Consumption in British Children

Abstract

Milk and dairy products are important components of the diet. However, consumption in children remains relatively low. The aim of this study was to identify dietary patterns associated with variations in dairy consumption in British children.
 Data were derived from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey collected in 2008/09‐2011/12 and included a total of 1687 children (828 girls and 859 boys) aged between 4 and 18 years old. Diet was assessed by a four‐day estimated food diary. Fifty food groups were created and were expressed as g/d. Dietary data was organised in quartiles of dairy intake (included milk, yogurt, ice cream, cheese, other milk and cream, and dairy desserts) and dietary patterns were identified using Kruskal‐Wallis with Dunn's multiple comparisons test, to determine significant differences between dairy quartiles and food groups.
 The lowest dairy quartile (Q1: 0‐93 g dairy/d) was associated with significantly higher intake of soft drinks (P=0.001), chips (P=0.001), coated chicken (P<0.05), chicken and turkey (P=0.05), and significantly lower intake of wholemeal bread (P=0.01), white fish (P=0.05), tea, coffee and water (P=0.05), biscuits (P=0.001), fruit (P=0.001), fibre (P=0.001) puddings (P=0.01) and sugar and preserves (P=0.05) compared with the highest dairy quartile (Q4: 306‐2022 g dairy/d).
 Overall, British children consuming a diet high in dairy foods had a dietary pattern that would be considered ‘healthy' compared with those consuming a diet low in dairy foods.
 This work was funded by DairyCo and The Dairy Council UK.