Multivariate analysis of diet among three-year-old children and associations with socio-demographic characteristics

Study objective: The study of the whole diet in combination rather than the consumption of individual food items or the intake of specific nutrients c ould be enlightening. This has been previously performed using principal co mponents analysis (PCA) on adult diets but not on those of children. Design: The frequency of consumption of a range of food items was recorded for 10,139 3-y-old children by their mothers using self-completion postal q uestionnaires. These children form part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of P regnancy and Childhood (ALSPAC). Methods: PCA was performed to identify individual dietary types which were then related to various socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Results: Four distinct dietary components were obtained explaining 23.5% of the total variation in the sample, and the socio-demographic characteristi cs of the sample were related to them. The first represented a diet based o n convenience foods and was associated with younger, less educated mothers and the presence of older siblings. The second was associated with a high c onsumption of foods currently considered to be healthy and was particularly related to vegetarian mothers and higher education levels. The third compo nent described the established British 'meat and two veg' diet and was asso ciated with girls and children with no older siblings, while the fourth had high loadings for snack and finger foods and was related to socially advan taged conditions and the presence of older siblings. Conclusions: Identifiable groups of mothers were associated with feeding th eir child each of the four dietary types, supporting the hypothesis that so cial, demographic and lifestyle factors relating to the mother have an infl uence on the early earing patterns of children. This analysis will form a b asis for the future study of various childhood outcomes including growth, h ealth and development.