Weekend and Weekday Eating Patterns in Puerto Rican Schoolchildren Participating or Not Participating in the School Lunch Program

Abstract

Number of eating occasions and meal patterns can have marked implications on the nutritional quality of children's diets. Various factors such as financial resources and mother's employment status have been examined by the Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals (CSFII)and have been reported for children. We have examined additional factors ‐ those of participation in the School Lunch Program and weekday vs weekend eating patterns. To accomplish this, we have performed 24 hr recall studies with children at 3 school levels: elementay (n=101), intermediate (n=115) and high school (n=105). We have further analyzed eating patterns on the basis of gender and of median body mass index (BMI). Results show that the mean number of eating occasions to be higher in participants (P) than in non‐participants (NP, to be higher in elementary school which lowers further in intermediate thru high school and to be higher in weekdays vs weekends. Number of occasions exceeded 4 per day for all groups. It would appear that participation in the Lunch Program is related to a higher number of eating occasions per day. This suggests positively that meal skipping is less however this might also raise the risk of overconsumption. Supported by the USDA‐CSREES‐NRI, award #2003‐35200‐13590.