PC3 NUTRITIONAL LONGITUDINAL STUDY IN 61 HEALTHY 10-YEAR OLD CHILDREN

Abstract

Introduction: Few data are available on the persistence of specific dietary habits in individuals through childhood ages. Methods: In 61 healthy 10-years-old children (33 males and 28 females), out of a population of 164 children enrolled at birth, anthropometrical measurements and nutritional habits by a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) were evaluated at 1, 5, 8, 10 years. According to the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) a child was defined overweight as her/his body mass index (BMI) was above the age- and sex-adjusted centile curve by Cole passing through the cut off of 25 kg/m2 at 18 years. Energy, macro-nutrient and dietary fiber intakes were evaluated. Glycemic Load (GL) and the Overall glycemic Index (OGI) were calculated from the carbohydrate content of each consumed food and its glycemic index. Macronutrient intakes (since 1y), GL and OGI (since 5y) were distributed in tertiles. Follow up of the distribution inside these tertiles was performed for every child from 1y to 5, 8 and 10 yrs. Statistics: Friedman test. Significance if p<0.05. Results: The BMI mean value was 16.5 (SD 1.9) at 1y, 16.2 (SD 1.5) at 5y, 16.4 (SD 2.6) at 8y and 17.7 (SD 3.2) at 10y. The prevalence of overweight was 23% at 5y, 28% at 8y, 24% at 10y. The energy intake was adequate to the Italian Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) at any age. The protein intake was 20.4% (SD 3.5) at 1y, ranging between 14.1% and 14.8% through 5y to 10y. The carbohydrate intake was 48.3% (SD 6.8) at 1y, and ranged between 56.6% and 60.1% in the 5y to 10y period. The lipid intake was 33.6% (SD 5.1) at 1y, and between 29.4% and 32.2% from 5y to 10y. The fiber intake was lower than the reccomended levels. In the 5y to 10y period the average GL and the average OGI ranged between 142.8 and 149.7 and between 57.6 and 58.5, respectively. The intra-individual dietary patterns were highly variable, as suggested by the lack of agreement within the levels of macro-nutrient intake (p= 0.99), GL (p= 0.99) and OGI (p= 0.99) at the different time-points. Conclusion: Our study confirms the findings on dietary habits found in previous surveys, indicating the poor compliance with the Italian RDA. The lack of a specific, detectable trend in children dietary habits suggests the need of: 1) extending to each child an early programme of nutritional education; 2) periodical dietary assessments to provide “targeted” information; 3) controlling the effective impact of the received information. A high degree in intraindividual variability of dietary patterns should also be considered.