Diet Quality Links Elders, Children

MELBOURNE, AustraliaDietary habits are connected through the generations, as elders who eat better likely paved the way for children to also have better dietary habits, according to a new study published in the journal Ecology of Food and Nutrition.

Researchers at Monash Universitys Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine and the Monash Asia Institute used national survey information on health and nutrition for more than 2,400 students ages 6 to 13 years, and nearly 1,800 elderly people. The research was used to assess the relationship between the quality of childrens diets and that of their elders in a wide range of representative communities.

According to lead researcher Mark Wahlqvist, the children who scored the highest on dietary quality showed a correlation with high dietary scores among their respective elders, where grandparents may be even more likely than parents to influence food habits.

It is likely that the grandparent generation is transmitting what the cultural group has acquired over several generations, modulated by their children and grandchildren," Wahlqvist said.

Researchers identified a range of factors that were shown to influence the quality of children's diets, including household income, parental education and the amount of time spent watching TV. When the overall findings were adjusted for these aspects, the quality of elders diets was still significantly associated with that of young peoples.

The research also raised the possibility that the association works both ways, with childrens familiarity with information technology, for example, boosting their influence over their elders. 

Our findings suggest that a decline in nutritional capacity in communities, represented by intergenerational transfer of food patterns, may place community health at risk," Wahlqvist said. "At the same time, the observations suggest that intervening with healthy eating measures in one generation may benefit other generations as well."