Browsing by Subject "vihannekset ja hedelmät"

Introduction According to Finnish nutrition recommendations children should eat fruit and vegetables (FV) diversely and at least 250 g/d or five handfuls measured by the child’s hand a day. There are many possible health benefits associated with higher fruit and vegetable diversity (FVD). There is no previous information on children’s FVD in Finland. Aims The main aims were to describe the FVD of 3- to 6-year-old children’s diet in Finland and to analyse whether socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with it. The other aim was to describe which FV species the children consumed. Materials and methods The data used is from the cross-sectional DAGIS survey (n=864) conducted during 2015–2016 in eight municipalities in Finland. The data used in the analyses consisted of 3- to 6-year-old children with three complete food record days (n=760). Ingredient level food data was used to create FV variables. Using these variables, a 3-day FVD score, which indicated the number of different FV species consumed by children during the three days, was calculated for each child. Hierarchical linear model adjusted with the season of food record collection days and children’s age and gender was used to analyse whether SES was associated with FVD. The SES variables used were family relative income, perceived income adequacy and parental educational level (PEL) and all of them were categorized as three-class variables (low, middle and high). Results The median (25th; 75th percentile) of the 3-day FVD score was 10.0 (8.0; 13.0). The low PEL was associated with a lower FVD score in the children’s diet compared to the high PEL. The association remained significant after adjusting for the season of food record collection days and child’s age and gender. No association was found with family relative income or perceived income adequacy. The ten most consumed FV species per gram in children’s diet in decreasing order were juice, apple, banana, cucumber, carrot, tomato, mandarin, pear, strawberry and grapes. Conclusions The children with low PEL had lower FVD than the children with high PEL. Increasing FV consumption in Finland, from the perspectives of both quantity and FVD, is an important task for the public health as it could have important health benefits.