Browsing by Author "Bergström, Janita"

Introduction: Vegetarian diets have become more popular in the last decades in Western countries including Finland. In Finland it is estimated that approximately 2-5 % of adults are vegetarian. Vegetarianism is most popular amongst young women and for that it is presumable for vegetarianism to become more common also in families with children. There are only few studies concerning the vegetarianism amongst children and families in Finland and the knowledge is not up to date. Aims: The aim of the study was to compare the food intake between children living in vegetarian families and children living in non-vegetarian families. Additionally, this study aimed to examine the role of parent’s educational background in the differences found in the childrens diet. Also the food environment of the families was investigated and compared between vegetarian and non-vegetarian families. Material and methods: The material of this study is from the DAGIS –Study. A total of 66 preschools and 864 children from Southern and Western Finland participated in the Study. In this thesis childrens food frequency questionnaire (FFQ; n=783) was used. The data for educational background and food environment were collected with separate forms filled by the quardian of the child. The families were divided into two groups, vegetarian and non-vegetarian families. The frequency of consumption of food groups was compared between children living in vegetarian families and children living in non-vegetarian families by using Mann Whitney U –test. The education was taken into account in a multilevel regression models (SAS 9.4) and the food environments were compared using Chi-Square –test. Results: There were 30 vegetarian families (in which there were 35 children) and 670 non-vegetarian families (in which there were 748 children). Only 5 children were vegetarian and in all but one family at least the mom was a vegetarian. The children living in vegetarian families used vegetables (p=0,002), fruits and berries (p=0,032), juices (p=0,005), plant proteins (p<0,001) and fish (p=0,001) more of than children in non-vegetarian families. They also used less meat (p<0,001), sugar containing food (p=0,029) and sugar cointaining beverages (p<0,001). All the associations, apart from fruits and berries, remained significant after adjusting the models with education. In addition, the parents in the vegetarian families reported that they showed the child that they liked eating vegetables (p=0,044), offered vegetables, fruits and berries for the child as a snack (p<0,001) and had more vegetables (p=0,016), berries and fruits (p=0,005) at home more ofthen than parents in non-vegetarian families. Conclusions: According to this study the maternal vegetarian diet is strongly associated with the childrens diet, even though the child was not a vegetarian. The children living in vegetarian families used healthy foods more often and less frequently some of the foods, like sugary beverages, which are recommended to be reduced in the diet. These differences in diet were not explained by the higher educational level of the family.