Browsing by Subject "dietary diversity"
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(2020)Introduction: Food insecurity (FI) is a quite common problem in high income countries. Many studies have indicated that some groups tend to be more vulnerable for FI than the others, for example food pantry clients. Aim of the study: To determine the prevalence of FI among Finnish food pantry clients, and to define if there were sociodemographic and lifestyle factors associated with FI. We also aimed to assess if FI is associated with dietary diversity. Materials and methods: A convenience sample of 129 food pantry clients (43% men and 57% women) was collected around Finland. Most of the participants were over 54 years old (77%), retired (72%) and had secondary education (58%). Participants completed a questionnaire which included questions about their gender, age, nationality, level of education, employment status, mode of housing, smoking and drinking habits, adequacy of income and perceived disadvantage. Questionnaire included also a seven-item food frequency questionnaire. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) based on 9 validated questions was used to determine the prevalence and severity of FI. Results: The prevalence of FI was 72%. Of the participants, 46% were severely food insecure. Gender and mode of housing were associated with FI. Men were twice likely to experience severe FI compared to women (OR 2,29; 95% CI 1,09−4,80). Participants who were homeless or living in a rented property were more likely to experience severe FI compared to them who were owner-occupiers (OR 7,12; 95% CI 2,42−20,95). Severely food insecure participants consumed less often fruits and berries (OR 0,36; 95% CI 0,15−0,90), vegetables (OR 0,33; 95% CI 0,13−0,82), dairy products (OR 0,22; 95% CI 0,08−0,63) and edible fat (OR 0,24; 95% CI 0,09−0,65) compared to food secure participants. Conclusions: FI seems to be quite common among Finnish food pantry clients. Severely food insecure clients had poorer dietary diversity than the others, which indicates that food pantries cannot respond to the needs of food pantry clients.
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(2022)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.
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